Scope : a look inside the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences

SPRING 2010
A new day for the mathematical
and statistical sciences
PAMS celebrates its first year in SAS Hall
IN THIS ISSUE 50 years of PAMS 4 Energy research update 12 PAMS Awards 16 “Professor of the Year” 18
scope A LO O K I N S I D E THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
NC STATE UNIVERSITY
PAMS Foundation Board of Directors
PAMS Alumni & Friends Advisory Board
Officers
Benton Satterfield, President
Bill White, Vice President
Larry James, Secretary
General Members
Cindy Clark
Kim Deaner
Todd Fuller
Scott Guthrie
Robert Hill
Bob Jackson
Sherice Nivens
Glenn Osmond
Jack Penny
Er Ralston
Nancy Ridenhour
Pam Pittman Robinson
Aimee Tattersall
Joselyn Todd
Mike Trexler
Chip Wentz
Leigh Wilkinson
scope
Officers
Bill Trent, Chair
Cathy Sigal, Vice Chair
Anita Stallings, President
Michelle Duggins, Secretary
Kathy Hart, Treasurer
Charles Leffler, Assistant Treasurer
General Members
Susan Atkinson
Thomas Bregger
Charles Case
Roy Cromartie
Eric Doggett
Jonathan Earnhart
Kevin Eldridge
Ned Guttman
Kathy Harris
Don Johnson
Herbert Kirk
Karen Lackey
Rob Lindberg
Randy Miller
David Montgomery
Connie Moreadith
Mo Ogburn
Michael Peirson
Mitch Perry
Tom Rhodes
Phil Summa
Michael Thompson
Barton White
Bill White
Leigh Wilkinson
Mark Wyatt
Ji Zhang
Miriam Zietlow
Emeritus
Richard Cook
Scope is published by the College of
Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
The College is made up of internationally
recognized departments:
Chemistry
Marine, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Mathematics
Physics
Statistics
Molecular & Structural Biochemistry
Dean
Daniel Solomon
Managing Editor
Anita Stallings
Editor
Steve Townsend
Contributing Writers
Tracey Peake
Dave Pond
Beth Saulnier
Design
Zubigraphics
On the cover:
Department heads Sastry Pantula
(Statistics) and Loek Helminck
(Mathematics) in the SAS Hall atrium.
Photo by Roger Winstead.
12,500 copies of this public document
were printed at a cost of $8,176.00
or $.628 per copy.
SPRING 2010 in this issue...
4
6
14
22
Dean’s message
2 Golden anniversary provides a great opportunity to celebrate
our past, present and future
College news
3 Woodson named NC State’s 14th chancellor
4 A legacy of discovery: Celebrating 50 years of PAMS
6 A new day for the mathematical and statistical sciences
10 Unconventional student challenges conventional wisdom
Research highlights
12 PAMS has all kinds of energy
14 Under the surface: Acoustics researcher listens in to unravel the ocean’s mysteries
Honors
16 Sigal, Ambrose and Wilkinson honored at annual PAMS Awards Dinner
18 Beichner racks up teaching honors at state and national level
19 PAMS senior awarded Astronaut Scholarship
20 Sullivant earns Packard Fellowship
20 Aiyyer earns CAREER Award, keeps PAMS’ streak alive
21 Notables
Alumni and Development news
22 Life estate gift will provide a home base for coastal science researchers
24 PAMS launches Dean’s Circle to recognize leading donors
Just for Fun
15 State Climate Office recognizes young weather photographers
The College of Physical and Mathematical
Sciences turns 50 this year. I’m sure some of
you reading this think a half century sounds
like an eternity. For others, those closer to my
own age perhaps, 1960 doesn’t seem quite so
long ago. In reality, 50 years—while much of
a lifetime to a person—is actually a relatively
short period of time for an institution to come
as far as has PAMS.
When we were founded in 1960 as the
College of Physical Sciences and Applied
Mathematics (PSAM), it was primarily to serve
as teaching units to the rest of the growing uni-versity.
Today, we are leaders in research that
addresses many of society’s greatest challenges.
While we remain committed to our educa-tional
mission, we also have programs that
rank among the best in the nation in securing
competitive research and development fund-ing,
simultaneously advancing knowledge and
serving as an economic development engine
for the Research Triangle,North Carolina and
beyond.
Much of the credit for our success goes to
the men and women who have served this
college as faculty and staff throughout the
years, including my predecessors as dean:
Buck Menius, Garrett Briggs and Jerry
Whitten. Credit also goes to the thousands
of students who have infused our commu-nity
with energy and enthusiasm since our
first departments began offering classes near
the end of the 19th century.
As you explore this issue of Scope, I hope
you find that the proud tradition of excellence
that began in our earliest academic depart-ments
is as prevalent today as it ever was.
On these pages, you will learn more about
our 50th anniversary celebration.You will read
about the difference our newest facility, SAS
Hall, is having on the future of the mathemat-ical
and statistical sciences at NC State.You will
also see specific stories about the successes of
our current faculty and students as well as
alumni who remain connected to the univer-sity
and continue to bring us distinction in their
professional lives and their charitable works.
This is a wonderful time to be a part of the
PAMS family, and I look forward to celebrat-ing
our past, present and future with you
throughout 2010 and beyond.
Sincerely,
Daniel L. Solomon,Dean
2 SPRING 2010 | scope
When we were founded in 1960 as the College
of Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics,
it was primarily to serve as teaching units
to the rest of the growing university. Today,
we are leaders in research that addresses many
of society’s greatest challenges.
Dean Dan Solomon welcomes attendees of Scope Academy 2010. This year’s event had a record
attendance of more than 200 students, faculty, alumni and friends (see story on page 4).
Golden anniversary provides a great
opportunity to celebrate our past,
present and future
PHOTO BY MARC HALL
scope | SPRING 2010 3
William Randolph “Randy”Woodson, most
recently executive vice president for academic
affairs and provost at Purdue University, has
been named chancellor of North Carolina
State University. The appointment was
announced by University of North Carolina
President Erskine Bowles in Chapel Hill on
Jan. 8, following approval by the UNC Board
of Governors.
As Purdue’s chief academic officer,Woodson
was responsible for overseeing all academic
programs on the West Lafayette and four
regional campuses, as well as providing lead-ership
for Purdue’s libraries, student services,
admissions and enrollment management, grad-uate
school, continuing education, interna-tional
programs, diversity and inclusion, and
information technology.Under his leadership,
Purdue began to implement a new strategic
plan that calls for significant improvements in
student access and success, a doubling of
research volume, and a renewed emphasis on
meeting global challenges in the areas of food,
energy, climate and sustainability.He also is a
distinguished teacher and researcher special-izing
in the field of plant science.
“Personally and on behalf of the college, I
am very pleased to welcome the Woodsons to
the university,”said PAMS Dean Dan Solomon.
“Chancellor Woodson has a track record of suc-cess
in teaching, research and leadership and
has already declared his strong support of the
physical and mathematical sciences.”
Woodson became Purdue’s provost on May
1, 2008. Before that appointment, he served as
the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture for
nearly four years.Under Woodson’s leadership
as dean, the college hired more than 100 new
faculty; partnered with the College of Science
to launch the Climate Change Research Center;
developed or enhanced a number of student-success
programs such as leadership develop-ment
and study abroad; increased sponsored
research from $41.6 million in 2003–2004 to
$67 million; hired more than 100 new county
educators; and created the college’s Office of
Multicultural Programs.
In 1998 he was named associate dean of
agriculture and director of agricultural research
programs with responsibility for overseeing
Purdue’s research programs in agriculture,
including fiscal management. Other respon-sibilities
included program development and
direction, budgeting, pursuit of outside fund-ing
for research, and advocacy for agricultural
and natural resources research.
From 1996 to 1998,Woodson served as the
head of the Department of Horticulture and
Landscape Architecture.He directed the plant
biology program from 1995 to 1997.Woodson
became a full professor in the Department of
Horticulture and Landscape Architecture in
1993; he joined the Purdue faculty in 1985.
Woodson was raised in Fordyce,Arkansas,
where his parents were public school teachers.
He received a bachelor’s degree in horticulture
and chemistry from the University of Arkansas
and a master’s degree in horticulture and doc-torate
in horticulture/plant physiology from
Cornell University. He began his academic
career as an assistant professor of horticulture
at Louisiana State University.
Woodson is married to Susan Wynne
Woodson, a graphic designer and co-founder
of HELEN magazine. They have three chil-dren:
Samantha, a research librarian with the
American Institute of Economic Research in
Massachusetts; Patrick, a graduate student at
Purdue pursuing a master’s degree in envi-ronmental
engineering; and Chloe, a sopho-more
at Purdue majoring in photography and
visual arts.
Chancellor Randy Woodson and his wife, Susan
Wynne Woodson, respond to the crowd at a
campus-wide reception welcoming them to the
NC State community.
Woodson named
NC State’s 14th chancellor
PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
Since its founding in 1960, the college has
become a national leader in research, teach-ing
and outreach. Today, our faculty are
engaged in research that runs the gamut from
curiosity-driven, pure science to applied
research that addresses some of society’s
greatest challenges.At the same time,we con-tinue
to explore new techniques and tech-nologies
to help educate the next generation
of leaders for North Carolina, the nation and
the world.
Whether you are a longtime member of the
PAMS family or a new friend of NC State,we
hope you will join us in our yearlong celebra-tion
of the college’s founding. Some highlights
of the anniversary celebration include:
Scope Academy
We began our yearlong 50th anniversary
celebration by hosting the fifth installment of
our signature education outreach event, Scope
Academy. This year’s event, held Friday and
Saturday, April 9–10, kicked off with Friday
night departmental reunions at the Dail Club
in Carter-Finley Stadium. More than 200
alumni, friends and current and former fac-ulty
and staff came together to enjoy North
Carolina BBQ and reconnect with old friends.
Friday night’s guest speaker was NC State’s
head football coach, Tom O’Brien, who spoke
about “being a champion” in the classroom,
in the community and on the field.
Saturday’s festivities began with our tradi-tional
Scope Seminars, educational and enter-taining
classroom sessions led by our own
outstanding faculty and alumni. The event
concluded with the 2010 Scope/Harrelson
Lecture, presented by Neal Lane, Malcolm
Gillis University Professor at Rice University
and senior fellow of the James A. Baker III
Institute for Public Policy. In addition to his
distinguished career in academia, Lane served
from 1993 to 1998 as director of the National
Science Foundation and from 1998 to 2001 as
assistant to the president for science and tech-nology
and director of the White House Office
of Science and Technology Policy.
In honor of PAMS’ 50th anniversary, the
lecture was co-sponsored by NC State
University’s prestigious Harrelson Lecture
Series. The lecture can be viewed online at
www.pams.ncsu.edu.
BBQ on the Courtyard
On April 29, current and former PAMS
Council members hosted a student celebra-tion
on the newly dedicated Governors W.Kerr
Scott and Robert W. Scott Courtyard, the
grassy area outside the Marye Anne Fox
Undergraduate Student Teaching Laboratory.
There were a variety of games and activities,
including an opportunity for students to
“dunk” their favorite professors in a dunk tank.
All proceeds from this event benefitted PAMS’
student groups.
Retrospective Library Exhibit
PAMS and NC State Libraries have joined
forces to present A Legacy of Discovery:
Celebrating 50 Years of the College of Physical
and Mathematical Sciences. This exhibit will
explore the rich history of the physical and
mathematical sciences at NC State, some of
which predates the college itself.
4 SPRING 2010 | scope
Tom O’Brien Neal Lane
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of
the School of Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics at NC
State , the precursor of the College of Physical and Mathematical
Sciences.We plan to celebrate this important milestone through-out
2010 with our students, alumni, faculty and friends.
A legacy of discovery:
Celebrating 50 years of PAMS
PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND
Since its founding in 1960, the College of Physical and
Mathematical Sciences (PAMS) has become a national leader in
research, teaching and outreach. Today, our faculty are engaged in
research that runs the gamut from curiosity-driven, pure science to
applied research that addresses some of society’s greatest
challenges. At the same time, we continue to explore new
techniques and technologies to help educate the next generation
of leaders for North Carolina, the nation and the world.
Whether you are a longtime member of the PAMS family or a new
friend of NC State, we hope you will join us in our yearlong
celebration of the college’s founding.
REDISCOVER PAMS
www.pams.ncsu.edu/50 pams_info@ncsu.edu 919-515-3462
Scope Academy – April 9-10, 2010
Highlights include departmental reunions
and keynote addresses by former White
House science advisor and NSF director
Neal Lane and Wolfpack head football
coach Tom O’Brien.
Retrospective Exhibit – Fall 2010
PAMS and NC State Libraries have joined
forces to present A Legacy of Discovery.
This exhibit will explore the rich history of
the physical and mathematical sciences
at NC State.
BBQ on the Courtyard – April 29, 2010
Current and former PAMS Council
members will host a student celebration
on the newly dedicated Governors W.
Kerr Scott and Robert W. Scott Courtyard.
6 SPRING 2010 | scope
The 119,000 square-foot building houses
state-of-the-art classrooms, computer labs,
tutorial centers and meeting and study space
for students and faculty from NC State’s
mathematics and statistics departments.
Quickly approaching the end of its first full
academic year of use, SAS Hall has already
had a profound impact on the faculty and
staff of its two departments and students
across the university.
Last May, NC State formally dedicated SAS Hall as the univer-sity’s
new home for mathematics and statistics.Construction
of the $32 million building was made possible by the Higher
Education Bond Referendum passed by North Carolinians in
2000, as well as by gifts from private donors, including a sub-stantial
contribution from Cary-based software company, SAS.
A new day for the mathematical
and statistical sciences
A great facility worthy of
a great tradition
NC State boasts a longstanding tradition of
excellence in teaching and research in mathe-matics
and statistics. The university ranks fifth
nationally in both total research and develop-ment
expenditures and in competitive federal
research and development expenditures in the
mathematical and statistical sciences. The
Department of Mathematics is one of the
largest producers of doctoral degrees in math-ematics
in the nation. The Department of
Statistics is among the nation’s oldest and most
prestigious, having been founded by renowned
statistician Gertrude Cox in 1941.
“NC State’s mathematical and statistical sci-ence
programs rank among the best in the
nation,” says PAMS Dean Dan Solomon.“We
now have a state-of-the-art facility that is wor-thy
of the stature of our students and faculty.”
Loek Helminck, head of the Department of
Mathematics, agrees, adding that the new
building not only reflects the two departments’
current quality, but will help perpetuate it.
“We are both already recognized as top
departments, but our new home helps proj-ect
that image of quality to everyone who
walks through our doors, including prospec-tive
students and faculty” Helminck says.
Recalling the cramped, noisy corridors and
offices of his department’s former home, he
adds with a smile,“Let’s just say Harrelson Hall
could be a tough sell to prospective faculty.”
In contrast to Harrelson Hall and some of
the other previous homes of the two depart-ments,
SAS Hall features spacious, flexible spaces
for classrooms and student labs, faculty and
graduate student offices, study areas and more.
A partnership with Cisco has helped ensure
that all these great spaces also have great tech-nology.
The company provided state-of-the-art
telephones, routers and other infrastruc-ture
that immediately made SAS Hall one of
the most technologically advanced teaching
facilities on campus.
Mathematics graduate student Catherine
Buell appreciates both the technology and the
overall quality of the environment the new
building provides.
“The classrooms are well-equipped with
great teaching tools that add to the learning
experience,” Buell says. “Honestly, I walk into
SAS Hall and I immediately feel like I am at a
university that has high expectations and is
proud of its mathematics program.My mind
still says,‘Wow!’whenever I enter the building.”
While the high-tech classrooms and offices
have received high praise, the spaces that mem-bers
of both departments seem to have found
the most beneficial are the common areas
directly off the four-story main atrium.
“I’ve been amazed by how much I can find
out about what’s going on in the department
simply by going over there with my brown bag
lunch or to get a cup of coffee,” says Sastry
Pantula, head of the Department of Statistics.
Both departments’ common areas—math-ematics’
on the fourth floor and statistics’ on
the fifth—seem to be brimming with activity
all day long. That activity can take the shape
of lunchtime seminars, student study groups,
scope | SPRING 2010 7
Mathematics and Statistics Department Heads Loek Helminck (left) and Sastry Pantula (right) flank
(from left to right) Ginger and John Sall and Jim and Ann Goodnight of SAS.
PHOTOS BY MARC HALL
potlucks, even a weekly game of Bridge.
Faculty and students are finding that the
proximity of the various offices, meeting
rooms and common areas in the new build-ing
are leading to greater communication and
collaboration across the two departments as
well as within. The departments are investi-gating
ways to further foster and benefit from
this newfound synergy.
Providing for all future mathe-maticians
and statisticians…
even the really young ones
One room in the new SAS Hall that may
not get a lot of attention, but that is greatly
appreciated by those who use it, is the Baby
Care Room on the fifth floor.While still a rel-atively
new concept, lactation and baby care
rooms have been found to benefit new par-ents
on college campuses and other workplaces
across the country.
Statistics graduate student Breanne Cameron
has found that having a comfortable, private
baby care space nearby has made life a lot easier
for her and her baby, Geoffrey.
“Prior to the move to SAS Hall, there were
several instances where I had to change Geoff’s
diaper in the hallway with an audience or try
to find an empty room for privacy to feed
him,” Cameron recalls. “The new Baby Care
Room is the first room I have encountered on
this campus with a changing table, sink and
comfortable chair to give Geoff everything he
needs while on campus.”
Cameron says she hopes to see more facil-
PHOTOS BY ROGER WINSTEAD
8 SPRING 2010 | scope
Students, faculty and staff alike benefit from a
wide variety of spacious, “connected” classrooms,
labs and meeting spaces in SAS Hall.
ities at NC State use SAS Hall as a model and
to see the campus, as a whole, continue to
become more infant and toddler—and
parent—friendly.
Where mathematics
meets design
Two of the dominant decorative elements
of the new SAS Hall—a mobile that hangs in
the main atrium and a spiral in the stone plaza
outside its main entrance—were inspired by
the Golden Ratio and visual constructions
based upon it.
The lobby mobile, titled Essentia, was
inspired by a gift from SAS to the College of
Physical and Mathematical Sciences and is the
work of Colorado-based artist Barbara Baer.
In a unique partnership between colleges, the
piece was designed and created over the course
of the Spring 2009 semester by the following
students in NC State’s College of Design:
Samuel Lewis Davis III,Marie Hermansson,
Margaret Jamison,Michelle Ko, Elena “E”Page
and Claudia Povenski.
The students worked with guidance from
Barbara Baer and under the direction and sup-port
of Jan-Ru Wan, David Knight and other
faculty and staff from the College of Design.
Other artwork in the building, ranging from
paintings to hanging textured pieces to free-standing
sculptures,were donated by SAS. The
company is widely known for the high qual-ity
and diversity of the artwork on its corpo-rate
campuses, which it periodically makes
available for public viewing.
Why SAS Hall?
SAS was born out of a research project that
began in the NC State Department of Statistics
in the early 1970s. Since then, the company
has grown into one of the largest software
providers in the world and was recently voted
the nation’s best company to work for by
Forbes. Two of the company’s founders, CEO
Jim Goodnight and Executive Vice President
John Sall, as well as their spouses, remain close
partners and staunch supporters of the depart-ments
and the university.
“At SAS, we believe that it is vital for stu-dents
in the mathematical and statistical sci-ences
to learn in an environment that provides
state-of-the-art facilities and instructional tech-nologies,”
Sall said at last year’s dedication cer-emony.
“It’s also critical that they participate
in the kind of collaborative initiatives they’ll
experience in the work place. That type of
environment produces the type of employee
and person we want at SAS, and it’s the type
we want to produce at NC State. That’s why
we decided to make a significant contribution
toward ensuring that this building would
become a reality.”
Having the name of one of the most
respected companies in America certainly
doesn’t hurt, either.
“Having ‘SAS’ on the outside of this build-ing
immediately positions us as a computa-tional
and analytical hub,” says Sastry Pantula.
“This is a magnet, a destination, for anyone
who wants to work and study in our fields.”
SAS Hall receives
architectural honor
SAS Hall isn’t just receiving accolades from its new residents. The building received an
honor award at the 2009 American Institute of Architecture (AIA) South Atlantic Region con-ference
held last fall in Greenville, SC.
Twenty projects were selected from more than 200 entries submitted by AIA South Atlantic
Region members. The South Atlantic Region includes North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia. The Park Shops renovation project—located across Stinson Drive from SAS Hall—
also received an honor award.
scope | SPRING 2010 9
PHOTO BY PAUL HUBBARD
PHOTO COURTESY OF PEARCE, BRINKLEY, CEASE + LEE
10 SPRING 2010 | scope
After all, this was in a course that has been
taught essentially the same way since the 19th
century, and the textbook, Introduction to
Electrodynamics,written by David Griffiths of
Reed College in Oregon, is the most com-monly
used advanced-undergraduate elec-tricity
and magnetism text in the world. In its
third edition, it has been pored over by tens of
thousands of students.
A problem with momentum
Babson’s issues weren’t about some arcane
wrinkle in a calculation. He was concerned
with the most basic of principles: conserva-tion
of momentum in a problem involving
electric and magnetic fields. Although the text
used in the course solved a particular problem
three separate ways, Babson found one of the
ways to be inconsistent.
It has been known for a century that
charges and their associated fields can sepa-rately
have momentum, but the total net
momentum of a system at rest must be zero.
The momentum in the fields is balanced by a
peculiar relativistic effect called hidden
momentum that was discovered long after
Einstein’s formulation of the theory of rela-tivity
in 1905. Babson convinced Reynolds
that the fundamental issue of determining the
momentum associated with fields was mis-treated
in at least one of the means used in
Griffiths’ example describing the principle.
Reynolds asked Babson to look more closely
at the other two means Griffiths had used.
“The examples in the book involved ideal-ized
systems with objects that filled all space
or were infinitesimally small,” Babson says.
“What I did is consider numerically developed
models of similar systems that didn’t allow for
such unphysical objects.”
Using careful numerical calculations involv-ing
real-world situations proved Babson was
onto something.With Reynolds’ help, this
novice student had discovered in Griffiths’ text
a basic misunderstanding involving the
momentum associated with electromagnetic
fields, and thus a misinterpretation of the so-called
hidden momentum.
Babson carefully described his calculations
and one Friday afternoon sent an e-mail to
Griffiths while Reynolds quickly fired off an
e-mail of his own—colleague to colleague.
“I wanted to be sure he knew Dave wasn’t
Unconventional
student
challenges
conventional
wisdom
While the frontiers of physics continue to advance, the core of the discipline is remarkably stable.
From the mechanics sorted out by Newton to the electricity described by Ampere, the principles
taught to students in classical physics classes have changed precious little in more than 100 years.
Thus, it was with no small amount of skepticism last spring when NC State Physics Professor Stephen
Reynolds listened to his student,David Babson, explain how something didn’t quite ring true in a
text used in Reynolds’ electricity and magnetism class for junior physics majors.
David Babson
just some kook,”Reynolds admits now.
Griffiths responded within a matter of hours,
thanking Babson for discovering the error.He
then began a dialogue with Babson, Reynolds
and Robin Bjorkquist, one of his own under-graduate
students at Reed College. The fruitful
and extensive series of communications between
the four led to their publication of an article,
titled “Hidden Momentum, Field Momentum,
and Electromagnetic Impulse,”that clarifies the
concept of the nature of the conservation of
momentum in the presence of electromagnetic
fields. The article appeared in the September
issue of the American Journal of Physics.
And, not surprisingly, the upcoming fourth
edition of Griffiths’ textbook will include the
correction.
Not your average
physics student
Finding a fundamental error in the text-book
wasn’t the only thing that made David
Babson stand out in Stephen Reynolds’ under-graduate
electricity and magnetism class.
For one thing, he is a 44-year-old husband
and father of two who has already earned a BS
from Brown University and an MS from
Cornell University, both in computer science.
He’s also competed in several triathlons and
ranks among the top triathletes in North
Carolina for his age class.Most notably, he has
already been so successful in business that he
has been “retired” for three years and decided
to pursue a PhD in physics at NC State (he was
in Reynolds�� undergraduate class to brush up
on some physics fundamentals).
In just over a decade, Babson co-founded,
built and sold three venture-backed technol-ogy
companies.With a total investment of just
$10 million, his three companies have sold for
an aggregated $52.5 million. In 2004, he and
his partners, Mike Doernberg and Ken
Romley,were recognized by North Carolina’s
Council for Entrepreneurial Development for
their success as serial entrepreneurs.
Babson’s most recent company, SmartPath,
became the leader in marketing operations
software.He co-founded the company in 1999
and served as chief operating officer until
SmartPath was sold to DoubleClick for $24
million in 2004. The SmartPath software is
used to manage the marketing activities at a
number of leading companies.
Prior to SmartPath, Babson and his part-ners
created an Internet professional services
company, the Marathon Group,which devel-oped
the e-commerce and online branding for
Wrangler,Healthtex,Volvo and RJ Reynolds,
among others. The company sold for $15 mil-lion
to Merant in 1999.
The first company Babson started was
Burl Software which offered a software analy-sis
tool, Revolve, to help programmers main-tain
and update large, complex software
systems. Burl was founded in 1991 and sold
in 1995 for $13.5 million to Microfocus.
Babson began his career at Bellcore in 1988.
During his three years at the telephony
research and development center, he earned
four software patents for inventing the next
generation network signaling software which
handles every one of the 400 million “800
number”phone calls placed in North America
each day. In 1991, he was awarded R&D
Magazine’s “Top 100 Inventions of the Year”
and was featured on the cover of Bellcore’s
annual report.
As David Babson continues his career in the
graduate program in physics at NC State, he
will keep a careful eye out for anything that
doesn’t ring true. While he may not ever
uncover any inconsistencies as deep or as pro-found
as those involved in the “hidden
momentum” now described in an important
journal article that bears his name, rest assured
that all of the physics texts he confronts—
from optics to relativity to nuclear physics—
will be studied with a careful eye and a
willingness to question whether everything he
reads is physically correct.
PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVID BABSON
scope | SPRING 2010 11
Babson, pictured below with his family,
is among the top triathletes for his age class.
Researchers in PAMS, the College of
Engineering and the College of Education
have received a three-year, $1.2 million grant
from the National Science Foundation’s
Center for Chemical Innovation (NSF-CCI)
to pursue research in the emerging field of
molecular spintronics. The grant will fund
a center for molecular spintronics at NC
State and support a research coalition
between scientists at NC State and UNC-Chapel
Hill with the aim of using this tech-nology
to develop smaller, faster, more
energy-efficient electronic devices with
increased storage capability.
David Shultz, professor of chemistry, is the
principal investigator. NC State co-PIs include
Dan Dougherty,Marco Buongiorno-Nardelli
and Jack Rowe from physics; Joe Tracy from
materials science and engineering; and Gail
Jones from math, science and technology edu-cation.
The grant is one of four awarded
nationally by the NSF.
Molecular spintronics refers to the use of
designed molecules containing electrons that
are not involved in chemical bonds. These elec-trons
have small magnetic fields which can
then be utilized to power electronic devices
with more memory storage capability, faster
operation and lower energy usage.
“This is a combination of materials science
and chemistry that goes beyond mere nan-otechnology,”
Shultz says, “and that has the
advantage of taking the field of electronics
PHOTOS BY ROGER WINSTEAD
NSF grant will
help researchers
develop smaller,
faster electronic
devices
PAMS HAS A
Two new grants will allo
energy technologies whi
David Shultz
12 SPRING 2010 | scope
beyond the current limitations we have when
working with materials like silicon.”
The grant also allows the research team to
focus on outreach and training for a new gen-eration
of scientists specializing in this tech-nology
by providing funding for graduate
courses and other educational activities.
“It is an effort not only to use designed mol-ecules
to build new devices, but also to train
future researchers and workers who can bring
this technology into the world and market-place,”
Buongiorno-Nardelli says.
Mitchell receives
grant to study
nuclear safety,
waste reuse
While furthering our knowledge in new
fields like molecular spintronics will be vital
as we attempt to meet the ever-growing
demand for energy, so too will improving our
understanding of making existing technolo-gies
cleaner and safer.
To this end, Gary Mitchell, professor emer-itus
of physics, has received an $800,000 grant
from the National Nuclear Security Admin-istration
(NNSA) to explore ways to reuse or
otherwise safely dispose of waste from nuclear
power plants.
Mitchell will serve as lead investigator on
the project titled, “Cross Sections, Level
Densities and Strength Functions.”
“Nuclear energy is easier to utilize than solar
or wind energy, but if we want to start think-ing
about building more reactors to help alle-viate
our dependence on fossil fuels, we have
to have a solution to deal with the byproducts
from those reactors,”Mitchell says.“What we’re
looking at is an alternate fuel cycle that pro-duces
a different sort of waste, and at reusing
this waste in order to reduce the total amount
of nuclear waste.”
The award is part of more than $20 million
in NNSA grants awarded to 28 researchers
from 18 states. This award was made possible
through the NNSA’s Stewardship Science
Academic Alliances (SSAA) program.
scope | SPRING 2010 13
PAMS establishes graduate student fund
in Mitchell’s honor
In honor of Gary Mitchell’s distinguished career and in gratitude for his passion for the growth and mentorship of young students and scien-tists,
a group of his colleagues and former students have established the Gary E. Mitchell Graduate Support Endowment. The fund provides annual
support for one graduate student in NC State’s Department of Physics.
The fundraising efforts are spearheaded by Larry James (PhD ’89 Physics) and other students who worked under Mitchell at the Triangle
Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL), including John Shriner, Sharon Stephenson and Jeff Vanhoy. Contributions continue to be accepted to
grow the endowment and provide additional student support. For more information or to contribute, please contact the PAMS Office of College
Advancement at pams_dev@ncsu.edu or 919-515-3462.
ALL KINDS OF ENERGY
ow NC State researchers to develop emerging
ile making existing ones cleaner and safer
Gary Mitchell
Del Bohnenstiehl has his ears tuned to what’s
happening at the bottom of oceans.An expert
in underwater acoustics, Bohnenstiehl is work-ing
to improve the understanding of earth-quakes—
like the ones that cause tsunamis
—and add to a body of knowledge that may
someday save lives by detecting disasters early
enough for more people to flee to safety.
Bohnenstiehl, an assistant professor of
marine, earth and atmospheric sciences, stud-ies
earthquakes using underwater microphones
called hydrophones. Seismometers, he says,
have difficulty detecting small earthquakes in
the middle of the ocean, but hydrophones can
capture extremely faint sounds over thousands
of kilometers. “If we listen for earthquakes
using hydrophones, we get thousands of
events,” he says.“In some cases, if we were just
listening from land,we would think an area is
totally quiet.”
Though hydrophones alone wouldn’t offer
an early warning system against tsunamis, he
says, they’re valuable in studying them.
Tsunamis are only associated with earthquakes
that rupture the seafloor. The shallower the
earthquake is, the louder the acoustic signal it
makes, he says. Examining the amplitude of
the T-wave—the signal that’s generated by the
earthquake—provides an estimate of how
deep the event is.
This better data collection is essential to
understanding phenomena such as under-water
fault zones and volcanoes that cause
earthquakes and also could apply to faults on
land that threaten major cities.“Most current
research aims at characterizing earthquakes
in particular areas through tracking data like
size and frequency,” he says. “We’re learning
a lot more about how one earthquake influ-ences
another, how that promotes failures in
other regions.”
Bohnenstiehl’s work studying underwater
noise via hydrophones is in high demand for
projects in fields ranging from biology to geol-ogy.
It has taken him around the globe, to
research sites in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian
oceans and even to Antarctica.While some
microphones are close enough to shore to be
connected via cable to monitoring stations,
most are anchored by weights on the sea floor.
Researchers collect them every two years or so.
“Earthquakes, ship noise, whales,” says
Bohnenstiehl, an Illinois native who first saw
an ocean at age 12. “Acoustically, the ocean is
a very happening place.”
And it’s only getting busier. In another proj-ect,
Bohnenstiehl uses hydrophones to study
noisy ice, which may threaten marine mam-mals.
Global warming causes the glaciers to
melt, he says, and huge chunks fall into the
ocean. Icebergs that break off the Antarctic
Peninsula can vibrate and hum, he says, and
some of the signals are loud.With noise lev-els
rising due to humming icebergs as well as
human activities like ship traffic and oil
drilling, marine mammals are increasingly vul-nerable
because they use sound to navigate
and communicate.
“A whale uses its sonar for all sorts of
things—talking to other whales, finding a
mate, hunting for food,” Bohnenstiehl says.
“The whale is a large animal, so for it to dive
down and look for food takes a lot of energy.
And if it’s unsuccessful on a number of dives
because the ocean is noisier, that energy is lost.”
Bohnenstiehl records the calls of the whales,
supporting studies of migration.He also has
been aiding biologists in studying creatures
that live in deep hydrothermal vents in other
work that involves predicting seafloor erup-tions.
The summer before last, he worked on
a pilot study on fish populations in the Florida
Keys, determining whether sound helps lar-vae
migrate back to their home reef and what
impact a noisier coastline might have on them.
Underwater acoustics, he says,“is an area where
you can apply many things—biology, geol-ogy,
physics, chemistry. There’s so much we
don’t know; on any given day we��ll hear things,
and no one can tell you what they are. So there
are all these mysteries to be unraveled.”
This article originally appeared in the Winter
2009 issue of NC State magazine, which is a
benefit of membership in the North Carolina
State University Alumni Association.
14 SPRING 2010 | scope
PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
Under the surface: Acoustics researcher listens in
to unravel the ocean’s mysteries
Del Bohnenstiehl
The State Climate Office of North Carolina
(SCO) last summer held its second annual
weather photography contest. The contest was
open to photographers between the ages of 7
and 16, with the stipulation that the photo
must have been taken in North Carolina. The
first-place winner received a rain gauge, an NC
State prize pack and a tour of the SCO offices
on Centennial Campus. Second- and third-place
winners received NC State prize packs.
The State Climate Office of North Carolina
is the primary source for North Carolina
weather and climate information and is
involved in all aspects of climate research, edu-cation,
and extension services. For more infor-mation,
please visit www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu.
State Climate
Office recognizes
young weather
photographers
FIRST PLACE — Avery Locklear, 9th Grade, Winston-Salem, NC
THIRD PLACE — Heather Patrick, 7th Grade, Creedmoor, NC
SECOND PLACE — Kara Stonecypher, 7th Grade, Chapel Hill, NC
scope | SPRING 2010 15
The College of Physical and Mathematical
Sciences continued its tradition of celebrating
the achievements of its alumni and friends at
the annual PAMS Awards Dinner, held last
December at the Cardinal Club in downtown
Raleigh. This year’s honorees all boast impres-sive
professional resumes and unparalleled
service to NC State and PAMS.
Cathy Sigal
Distinguished Alumna Award
Catherine T. Sigal (BS ’76 Chemistry) was
selected as the College’s 2009 Distinguished
Alumna. Established in 1990, the PAMS
Distinguished Alumni Award recognize alumni
whose exceptional achievements in business,
education, research or public service have
brought honor and distinction to PAMS and
NC State.
Sigal came to North Carolina as an NC State
freshman in 1972.While she was born in New
York and raised primarily in Michigan and
Mississippi, her family had a history with both
the state and university. Her father, Thomas
Teague, grew up in Fairmont,North Carolina,
and received a BS in electrical engineering
from NC State in 1936.
Sigal had an outstanding academic career
at NC State, serving as a distinguished North
Carolina Fellow—which later became part of
the Caldwell Fellows Program, one of the uni-versity’s
most competitive and prestigious
scholarship programs—and graduated as vale-dictorian
with a bachelor’s degree in chem-istry.
She went on to receive master’s degrees
in chemistry from Harvard and chemical engi-neering
from MIT and a PhD in molecular
biology from Princeton and served as a post-doctoral
fellow at the National Institutes of
Health.
While working for Mobil Research and
Development Labs, she received three patents
for her work in developing new catalysts for
petrochemical manufacturing. She subse-quently
moved to Merck Research Labs where
she designed and scaled-up new processes for
the production of drugs and vaccines.
Most recently, Sigal traveled the world as
the director of international research for the
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, where
she oversaw JDRF’s international research
portfolio and worked to build partnerships
with governmental agencies outside the U.S.
to co-fund diabetes research.
Not only has Sigal made numerous signifi-cant
impacts throughout her professional career,
her commitment to students is unwavering. She
has created the Irving S. Sigal Postdoctoral
Fellowship with the American Chemical Society
which provides a stipend to a scientist whose
work addresses a significant problem involving
both chemistry and biology.
She serves the College as vice-chair of the
PAMS Foundation Board and as a member of
the investment committee, where, according
to PAMS Dean Dan Solomon,“Her thought-ful
questions and comments have made her
our own version of E.F.Hutton.When Cathy
speaks up,we know it’s something we should
listen to.”
Sigal has left a permanent mark on PAMS
and NC State by endowing the Thomas S.
Teague Scholarship in memory of her father,
which supports both undergraduate students
majoring in one of the PAMS disciplines and
students majoring in electrical engineering.
She is also a strong supporter of annual giv-ing
for PAMS and has joined the Dean’s Circle
as a founding member.
Dick Ambrose
Zenith Medal for Service
Richard J. “Dick”Ambrose was selected as
the recipient of the College’s 2009 Zenith
Medal for Service. Established in 2005, this
award recognizes alumni or friends of PAMS
for distinguished contributions or advocacy
that significantly advance our ability to make
powerful impacts on science, the economy, the
environment and the quality of human life.
A staunch advocate for PAMS, for NC State,
and for education in general for more than
three decades,Ambrose was raised in the small
town of Girard, Ohio, just outside of
Youngstown. He pursued both his under-graduate
and graduate degrees in his home
state, earning his BS in chemistry from
Bowling Green State University in 1964 and
his PhD in polymer science from the Uni-versity
of Akron in 1968.
After college,Ambrose went to work for the
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, where,
over the next decade, he would rise from
research scientist to senior research scientist
to group leader in the exploratory polymer-ization
program.
In 1979, he left Firestone for Lord Corpor-ation,
a worldwide leader in adhesives and coat-ings,
vibration and motion control, and
magnetically responsive technologies.Ambrose
spent the next 28 years at Lord, retiring in 2007
as the company’s vice president of research and
technology—and with 21 patents in various
areas of polymer science and processing.
Ambrose’s relationship with NC State began
in the mid 1980s, shortly after Lord moved its
headquarters from Erie, Pennsylvania, to Cary.
He served as an adjunct faculty member in the
College of Textiles from 1986 to 1995, and he
served on the PAMS Foundation Board of
Directors from 1989 to 2000.
“While his service in these ‘official’ roles has
been invaluable, it doesn’t begin to tell the entire
story of his impact on PAMS and NC State,”
said PAMS Dean Dan Solomon.“Dick’s belief
in the mutual benefits of industrial support of
higher education has led to longstanding rela-tionships
with Lord Corporation across our
college and throughout the university.”
Perhaps the most notable of these relation-ships
is the partnership between Lord and the
Center for Research in Scientific Computation
(CRSC) in the Department of Mathematics.
From its initial partnership with Lord
Corporation, CRSC’s Industrial Applied
Mathematics Program—under the direction
of Professor Tom Banks—has grown to
include some 20 corporate and governmental
partners and has trained dozens of students
to successfully communicate across disciplines
and bridge the gap between academics and
industry.
Over the years,Ambrose has leveraged Lord
Corporation resources and provided his own
personal support for PAMS and NC State.He
made possible the Lord Corporation/CRSC
Graduate Fellowship Program in mathemat-ics
and the Lord Corporation Distinguished
16 SPRING 2010 | scope
Sigal,Ambrose and Wilkinson honored
at annual PAMS Awards Dinner
Professorship in chemistry, and he established
the Marsha Ambrose Endowment for The
Science House in honor of his wife.
Leigh Wilkinson
Medal of Achievement
Leigh Wilkinson (BS ’82 Mathematics) was
selected as the recipient of the College’s 2009
Medal of Achievement. Established in 2005,
this award recognizes early- to mid-career
alumni of PAMS who have excelled through
their chosen professions or public service, and
proven themselves destined to make a signif-icant
impact in science, government, educa-tion,
business or industry.
A lifelong North Carolinian,Wilkinson was
born in Asheboro and raised in Robeson
County. She attended Maxton High School
where she was both valedictorian and class
president her senior year.Wilkinson had con-tinued
success as an undergraduate student at
NC State, graduating magna cum laude with
a BS in mathematics in 1982.
While Wilkinson went on to earn her JD
from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1985, PAMS Dean
Dan Solomon reminded everyone that NC
State was responsible for her pursuit of a law
degree.
“While Chapel Hill gets credit for confer-ring
Leigh’s law degree,we still get to take credit
for planting the seed,” Solomon said. “Leigh
admits that it was an adjunct instructor at NC
State, who was also an attorney in Raleigh, who
encouraged her to take the LSAT and pursue
a legal career.”
After graduating from law school,
Wilkinson joined the law firm of Ward and
Smith, P.A., and has been practicing in the
firm’s New Bern office ever since. She became
a shareholder ofWard and Smith in 1990 and
currently serves as the chair of the firm’s Health
Care Practice Group. She has also served as
chair of the Law School Recruitment
Committee and as a member of the
Professional Development Committee and the
Attorney Evaluation Committee.
She is a member of the North Carolina
Society of Health Care Attorneys; the North
Carolina and American Bar Associations; the
Craven County Bar Association; the Medical
Group Managers Association; and the
American Health Lawyers Association. She was
recognized in the 2010 edition of Best Lawyers
in America in the practice area of health care.
Wilkinson has also been recognized on
many occasions for her extensive community
service, particularly in her adopted home town
of New Bern. She is a three-time recipient of
Tryon Civitan Club’s President’s Award; two-time
recipient of Tryon Civitan Club’s Honor
Key Award; 2007 recipient of North Carolina
District East Honor Key Award; Craven
County Distinguished Woman Award; Big
Brothers Big Sisters Big Sister of the Year
Award;New Bern Area Chamber Volunteer of
the Year Award; the Coastal Women’s Forum
President’s Award; and she is the recipient of
a special recognition by former North Carolina
Governor Jim Hunt for her volunteerism.
Since her days on campus,Wilkinson has
remained an active supporter of PAMS and
NC State. She is a founding member, inaugu-ral
president and current board member of
the PAMS Alumni and Friends Advisory
Board; a founding member of the PAMS
Dean’s Circle; a member of the PAMS
Foundation Board of Directors; a member of
the Coastal Region review team for the Park
Scholarships; and a lifetime member of the
NC State Alumni Association.
scope | SPRING 2010 17
Dean Dan Solomon with award recipients Cathy Sigal, Leigh Wilkinson and Dick Ambrose.
PHOTO BY MARC HALL
His contributions to science education, from
co-authoring a top-selling physics textbook to
literally changing how our students are edu-cated
in the classroom, reach far beyond the
boundaries of our own campus. Earlier this year,
Beichner was recognized for his efforts, and
named North Carolina Professor of the Year by
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching and the Council for Advancement
and Support of Education (CASE).
“I’ve had the privilege to learn from the
teaching of many talented individuals in a wide
variety of fields of study,” says NC State jun-ior
Nicko Guyer. “The teachers I find I learn
the most from always love the material that
they teach, love teaching it, and earnestly want
their students to be able to understand what
it is they have to offer. This is exactly the type
of teacher that Dr. Beichner is.”
Beichner’s innovative work with SCALE-UP
(Student-Centered Active Learning
Environment for Undergraduate Programs)
has caught on around the country,with more
than 100 schools—including MIT,Clemson,
and the University of Alabama—investing in
similar programs. The project borrows
methodology and teaching efforts proven to
be successful in small class settings, such as
hands-on activities, simulations and round-table
discussions, and adapts them for use in
larger classrooms.
It’s a concept that has proven wildly suc-cessful
for Beichner, who also was named
2009–2010 Outstanding Undergraduate
Science Teacher by the Society for College
Science Teachers and the National Science
Teachers Association last fall.
18 SPRING 2010 | scope
Beichner racks up teaching honors
at state and national level
Bob Beichner has long been
regarded as an expert not only
in his field, but also as a
teacher and a mentor with an
uncanny ability to influence
the lives and careers of his stu-dents
and colleagues alike.
PHOTO BY DAO NGUYEN
Bob Beichner with students in the SCALE-UP classroom at NC State. SCALE-UP classrooms are
specially designed to increase constructive interaction among students and between students and
instructors. They have proven to have a significant impact on student performance.
“The SCALE-UP techniques Bob has devel-oped
have had a huge impact on the success of
students not just at NC State, but around the
world,” says PAMS Dean Dan Solomon.“It is
particularly striking that success rates among
females and racial minorities increase dramat-ically
in a SCALE-UP setting compared to a tra-ditional
classroom. These are groups that are
historically underrepresented in the sciences
and engineering and are needed in much
greater numbers in the science, technology, engi-neering
and mathematics (STEM) workforce.”
Beichner, the director of NC State’s STEM
Education Initiative, says the modifications
SCALE-UP offers are a benefit to both faculty
and students.
“There is a lot of research that shows being
actively involved with what you are trying to
learn helps you learn, it makes it easier to learn
and you learn it better,” Beichner says. “What
we’ve done that is different is find a way to
make it work even in classes at a university the
size of NC State.
“Instead of me talking at 100 students, I’m
able to go around the room and talk with
smaller numbers of students,”he says.“There’s
much more faculty-to-student and student-to-
student interaction than you would find in
a regular classroom setting.”
The U.S. Professors of the Year program
salutes the most outstanding undergraduate
instructors in the country—those who excel as
teachers and influence the lives and careers of
their students. One professor is chosen from
each state, as well as the District of Columbia
and Guam. The Outstanding Undergraduate
Science Teacher program, on the other hand,
names a single award winner for the entire
nation.
“These professors have a passion for teach-ing
that sparks a passion for learning in their
students,” CASE president John Lippincott
said. “As great teachers, they combine a pro-found
knowledge of their disciplines with cre-ative
teaching methods to engage students
within and outside of the classroom.”
Dean Solomon agrees. “Bob has devoted his
career to improving the way we teach—and
students learn—science at the university level,”
he said.“His very presence has allowed us to
attract other STEM education experts to NC
State, creating a community of faculty whose
research will put the university at the forefront
in this area and further improve postsecondary
STEM education for generations to come.”
For more information on SCALE-UP, please
visit http://scaleup.ncsu.edu/.
scope | SPRING 2010 19
PHOTO COURTESY OF NC STATE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
PAMS senior awarded
Astronaut Scholarship
NC State senior Brittany Boudreaux was awarded a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut
Scholarship Foundation (ASF). The scholarship was presented to Boudreaux by Apollo 16
astronaut and moonwalker Charlie Duke during a campus ceremony last September.
Boudreaux is completing double majors in applied mathematics and civil engineering.
After Hurricane Katrina, she spent the summer of 2006 as an engineering aide at the New
Orleans District Corps of Engineers assisting project managers overseeing levee recon-struction.
She co-authored an article accepted for publication in Inverse Problems in Science
and Engineering. Boudreaux plans to pursue a PhD and aspires to forestall future disasters
such as the levee failure in New Orleans.
Boudreaux is one of 17 students nationwide to receive this scholarship. The Astronaut
Scholarships are awarded annually to students who show exceptional performance in the
fields of science, engineering or mathematics. Recipients must exhibit motivation, imagi-nation
and intellectual daring, as well as exceptional performance, both in and outside the
classroom.
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation is a non-profit organization established by the
Mercury Astronauts in 1984 with the goal of aiding the United States in retaining its world
leadership in science and technology. The ASF has awarded more than $2.8 million in schol-arships
to date, including $188,000 to NC State students.
Brittany Boudreaux with Apollo 16 astronaut
and moonwalker Charlie Duke
Seth Sullivant, assistant professor of math-ematics,
has been awarded a prestigious
Packard Fellowship for Science and
Engineering from the David and Lucile
Packard Foundation. The award is valued at
$875,000 over five years.
Sullivant is one of only 16 recipients of the
2009 Packard Fellowships for Science and
Engineering and the only mathematician to
receive the award in 2009. Previous to this
award, there have been only three Packard
Fellows selected from NC State – two of which
were from PAMS – and only 21 fellowships
have ever been awarded in mathematics.
Sullivant joined NC State in 2008, after
serving three years as a Junior Fellow in the
Harvard Society of Fellows. A native of San
Diego, he received his PhD in mathematics
from the University of California, Berkeley,
in 2005. He received his master’s degree in
mathematics from San Francisco State in
2002, and his bachelor’s degree in mathe-matics
from the University of California,
Berkeley, in 2000.
The Packard Fellowships for Science and
Engineering were established in 1988 by the
David and Lucile Packard Foundation to allow
the nation’s most promising professors to pur-sue
science and engineering research early in
their careers with few funding restrictions and
limited paperwork requirements. Every year,
the foundation invites the presidents of 50 uni-versities
to nominate two professors each from
their institutions.
For more on the Packard Foundation, please
visit www.packard.org.
PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
Seth Sullivant
Sullivant earns Packard Fellowship
Aiyyer earns CAREER Award,
keeps PAMS’ streak alive
Anantha Aiyyer, assistant professor of
marine, earth and atmospheric sciences, has
received an Early Career Development Award,
more commonly known as a CAREER Award,
from the National Science Foundation.Aiyyer
received the $556,000 award for his project,
titled “Dynamics of African Easterly Waves:
Integrating Phenomenological Studies and
Mathematical Instruction in Atmospheric
Science,”which seeks to better understand and
teach about the origin and tracking of atmos-pheric
waves that are a key ingredient in
Atlantic tropical storms.
This honor is the latest in a string of
national and international awards received
by PAMS junior faculty members. Aiyyer is
the 7th PAMS faculty member to win a
CAREER Award in the last three years and
the 14th since 2004. Other recent honors
include the Beckman Young Investigator
Award, Sloan Research Fellowship and
Packard Fellowship (see above).
Aiyyer joined the PAMS faculty in 2006
after serving as a postdoctoral researcher at
the State University of New York at Albany,
where he also earned his master’s and PhD
in atmospheric science.He also holds bach-elor’s
and master’s degrees in physics from
the Indian Institute of Technology in
Kharagpur, India.
20 SPRING 2010 | scope
What’s new with you?
Alumni and friends of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences are encouraged to share your latest
success stories, update your contact information, or submit any questions or comments directly to
pams_info@ncsu.edu.
PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND
Anantha Aiyyer
scope | SPRING 2010 21
Stephen Ashley, Jr. (BA ’93 Chemistry) was
selected for the third consecutive year to
Business North Carolina magazine’s “Legal
Elite” in the field of intellectual property.
Ashley is a registered patent attorney and
owner of Ashley Law Firm P.C. in Charlotte,
specializing in patent, trademark and copy-right
law.
Tom Banks and Tim Kelley (Mathematics)
were named fellows of the Society for
Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
Banks was selected “for contributions to con-trol
and inverse problems for partial differ-ential
equations.” Kelley was selected “for
contributions to nonlinear equations, opti-mization,
and flow in porous media.”
John Blondin, Ruth Chabay and Gail
McLaughlin (Physics) have all within the last
year been named fellows of the American
Physical Society (APS) for their various con-tributions
in physics research and education.
APS is the world’s second-largest organiza-tion
of physicists, and is committed to advanc-ing
and diffusing the knowledge of physics.
Marie Davidian (Statistics) received the
George W. Snedecor Award from the
Committee of Presidents of Statistical
Societies. Davidian received the award at
the 2009 Joint Statistical Meeting for “fun-damental
contributions to the theory and
methodology of longitudinal data, especially
nonlinear mixed effects models; for signif-icant
contributions to the analysis of clini-cal
trials and observational studies; and for
leadership as president of ENAR (Eastern
North American Region/International
Biometric Society), as editor and as a mem-ber
of the International Biometric Society
council.”
Erich Kaltofen (Mathematics) was named
a fellow of the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM), the world’s largest educa-tional
and scientific computing society.
Kaltofen was selected “for contributions to
symbolic and algebraic computation, alge-braic
algorithms and complexity theory.”
Bruce Mattingly (PhD ’88 Applied Mathe-matics)
was named dean of the School of Arts
and Sciences at the State University of New
York at Cortland.
Gary Mitchell (Physics) was the 2010 recip-ient
of the American Physical Society’s
Division of Nuclear Physics Mentoring Award.
The award is given to division members who
have had an exceptional impact as mentors
of nuclear scientists and students. Mitchell
has mentored 55 graduate students over the
course of his career.
David Muddiman (Chemistry) has received
the 2010 Biemann Medal sponsored by the
American Society for Mass Spectrometry
(ASMS). The award recognizes significant
achievements in basic or applied mass spec-trometry
made by an individual early in his or
her career.
Daniel Solomon (Dean) was a recipient of
the 2010 Equity Award for Women. This award,
presented by the NC State University Council
on the Status of Women, is awarded in recog-nition
of service toward the goal of women’s
equity.
Leonard Stefanski (Statistics) has been
named Drexel Professor of Statistics at NC
State. Stefanski is known internationally for
his work in measurement error models. The
Drexel Professorship was created in 1968 by
a corporate gift from Drexel Enterprises,
which is now part of the company known as
Drexel Heritage Furniture, headquartered in
Thomasville, NC.
COURTESY OF STEPHEN ASHLEY, JR.
PHOTO BY MARC HALL
Stephen Ashley, Jr.
Notables
Marie Davidian
COURTESY OF SUNY-CORTLAND
PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
Bruce Mattingly David Muddiman
22 SPRING 2010 | scope
Working closely with their own attorneys
and the NC State University Office of Planned
Giving, the Simpsons have established a life
estate gift that deeds their home and property
in Carteret County to the PAMS Foundation.
A life estate gift allows a donor to give his or
her personal residence to a charitable institu-tion
while retaining lifetime use.
Upon transfer to PAMS,ultimately the prop-erty—
roughly 2.5 acres with about 200 feet of
frontage on Peletier Creek—will become the
Bob Simpson Visiting Scholars and Research
Residence. It will be used to provide short-term
housing and dockage facilities that will enhance
multidisciplinary studies among research sci-entists,
educators, extension specialists and stu-dents
concerned with marine sciences and
coastal natural resources.
The long road from Dakota
to Carolina
The gift is the culmination of a 60-year love
affair between Bob Simpson, 84, and the North
Carolina coast that began when he first arrived
Bob Simpson first came to North Carolina in 1949. In the six
decades since, he has been a tireless advocate for the state’s coastal
regions and the outdoors in general. Through a recent gift he and
his wife, Conni, have made to the College of Physical and
Mathematical Sciences, Simpson has guaranteed that this legacy
will live on for generations to come.
Life estate
gift will
provide a
home base
for coastal
science
researchers
in Carteret County as a young World War II
veteran after serving three years as a naviga-tor
in the Marine Corps. A native of Havana,
North Dakota, he returned to the Great Plains
briefly after the war before a lead on a job with
the Carteret News Times brought him to North
Carolina.
“The editor said, ‘Pay your own way, and
we’ll give you a six-week trial,’”Simpson recalls.
“So I loaded up my wife and all of my posses-sions
into an old Model A Ford and hit the
road for Morehead City.”
When they arrived, Simpson and his young
wife, Mary, who died in 2005, needed an
affordable place to stay. They found that buy-ing
a used boat was going to be cheaper than
renting a room, so they bought the 45-foot
cruiser, Silver Spray. It would be the Simpsons’
home for the next 17 years, splitting time
between North Carolina and Florida.
Simpson returned to military service dur-ing
the Korean War. Upon his return to the
States, he began working as a freelance writer
for various boating and outdoor publications.
Around the same time, he began to write a reg-ular
column for the News & Observer, where
his nature pieces continue to run each Sunday
on the editorial page.He also began working
in his spare time on a variety of other projects
to promote the region.
Today, those projects read like a laundry list
of what makes coastal North Carolina such a
wonderful place to visit and live.
Simpson and a small group of friends started
the Fabulous Fishermen contest as a way to
promote marlin fishing off of Morehead
City. Today, the contest is known as the Big
Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament, one
of the largest and most prestigious events of
its kind in the country.
He was a driving force behind the estab-lishment
of a mariners’ museum in
Beaufort, known today as the North
Carolina Maritime Museum.
He was instrumental in creating the Skippers
Roster in downtown Morehead City,which
memorializes many of the captains who
contributed to North Carolina’s reputation
as a world-wide sports fishing center.
He was also a leader in the fight to prevent
a highway from running through Cape
Lookout National Seashore. Much to
Simpson’s credit, the shore looks much the
same as it did when he began his fight.
A place to ��turn the lights on”
The logic behind the recent gift Bob and
Conni Simpson, who were married on
Valentine’s Day 2009, have made to PAMS is
in much the same vein as Bob’s fight to pro-tect
Cape Lookout.When asked why he chose
to give the property away when developers
were offering upwards of $2 million for it,
Simpson’s answer is as feisty as it is heartfelt.
“I’m giving it away because I’m ornery,” he
says. “I’ve seen too much natural beauty
destroyed around here in my life, and I didn’t
want to see this property turned into more
condos or apartments.”
Instead, Simpson decided that his personal
oasis will be used as a place to house and,
hopefully, inspire those who may help us bet-ter
understand how to balance natural beauty
and economic success in coastal areas.
“I’m hoping this is a place that will help
turn the lights on for students,” he says. “It
will be a place where they can be totally
immersed in the culture and the environ-ment
and see if studying, understanding and
protecting them is really something they
want to devote their life to.”
Much like Bob Simpson has devoted his life
to the same cause.
scope | SPRING 2010 23
PHOTOS BY STEVE TOWNSEND
The view up Peletier Creek from the Simpsons’ property.
Bob and Conni Simpson
at their home in Carteret County.
How to
make a gift
You may remember how difficult it was
to manage the expense of higher educa-tion.
You may want to help today’s stu-dents
achieve their dreams.
The PAMS Foundation provides many
ways to support students, faculty and pro-grams
of the College. Whether you want
to contribute to an existing scholarship,
support a departmental enhancement
fund, make a memorial gift or consider
support in other areas, our staff is avail-able
to help you explore the options.
To support existing funds
To contribute to a scholarship, fellow-ship
or other fund, fill out our secure,
online gift form at https://www3.acs.
ncsu.edu/ pams/ or mail a check to the
PAMS Foundation, Campus Box 8201,
Raleigh, NC, 27695. Make checks payable
to PAMS Foundation and write the name
of the fund on the “notes” or “for” line.
If your employer provides matches for
charitable donations, please send a
completed matching gift form with your
contribution.
There are many funds not mentioned
in this issue of Scope. For a full list of
funds, visit www.pams.ncsu.edu/devel-opment/
funds.php or contact our office.
To explore other options
If you have questions about gift plan-ning,
we can help you identify tax benefits,
choose between permanent endowment
versus one-time support, and explore
estate planning or life-income options.
There are many ways to match your
interests with specific College needs, and
several possibilities for making your
vision a reality. Whether using cash,
appreciated stock, real estate or a
bequest, we can help you find the best
way to make the most of your gift.
Contact us at 919-515-3462 or by
e-mail at pams_dev@ncsu.edu.
24 SPRING 2010 | scope
PAMS launches Dean’s Circle
to recognize leading donors
The College of Physical and Mathematical
Sciences last fall announced the creation of
the PAMS Dean’s Circle, a new donor recog-nition
society to honor alumni and friends
who provide unrestricted annual gifts to the
PAMS Fund for Excellence.
The Fund for Excellence provides urgently
needed resources for important priorities
such as scholarships and fellowships, student
programs, research support and student and
faculty recruitment activities.
“While endowed gifts help secure the
College’s long-term financial strength, these
types of unrestricted, recurring gifts pro-vide
our leadership team with greater flex-ibility
to respond to more immediate
opportunities and challenges,” says Anita
Stallings, PAMS executive director of col-lege
advancement.
Dean’s Circle members will include all
donors who make an annual gift of $1,000 or
more—$500 or more from new alumni who
have graduated within the last five years.
Dean’s Circle members who give at the $1,000
level or higher also earn membership in the
university’s leadership giving society, the
Chancellor’s Circle. All Dean’s Circle mem-bers
will receive recognition in Scope maga-zine,
on the PAMS Web site and at various
College events throughout the year.
Additional giving levels within the Dean’s
Circle can be reached with minimum gifts of
$2,500, $5,000 and $10,000.
“We really need and appreciate these kinds
of gifts,” says Marla Gregg, PAMS director of
donor and alumni relations, who spearheaded
the effort. “Our goal was to come up with a
way to thank our donors for their generosity
and to encourage others to give.”
For more information on the PAMS Dean’s
Circle, please visit www.pams.ncsu.edu/
development/recognition.php or contact
Marla Gregg at pamsalumni@ncsu.edu or
919-515-3462.
WE’RE TAKING
INNOVATION
TO NEW DEPTHS
Itmay sound like a cliché, but it’s true—theworld is our classroom. In fact, in the
College of Physical andMathematical Sciences, our classroom stretches fromthe
middle of the oceanto the inner reaches of thedesert. Frominside thehumanbody
to the outer edges of our galaxy. But learning also takes place in actual brick-and-mortar
classrooms—some of themost advancedscience teachingenvironments in
the world, designed by our own professors to create active, collaborative learning.
Wherever PAMS faculty and students go, they are at the forefront of discovery. A
journey that starts with curiosity-driven, pure science and continues with applied
research that addresses some of society’s greatest challenges.
Learn more at www.pams.ncsu.edu
College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
North Carolina State University
Campus Box 8201
Raleigh, North Carolina 27695–8201
NC STATE UNIVERSITY Nonprofit Org
US Postage
PAID
Raleigh, NC
Permit #2353
Through careful coordination with your financial planner and the PAMS Foundation,
it is possible for you to increase income or reduce taxes—including income, capital
gains, gift, and estate taxes—while making a greater investment in the future of
PAMS than you ever thought possible.
Deferred, or planned, gifts come in many shapes and sizes. Contact us today for more
information on achieving financial security for you and PAMS through:
beneficiary designations for wills, trusts and retirement plans
charitable gift annuities
charitable remainder trusts
charitable lead trusts
remainder interest in a residence or farm
life insurance
How can you secure a legacy for
yourself and the College of Physical and
Mathematical Sciences all at the same
time? By ensuring that your financial,
retirement and estate plans are in
order, and considering a deferred gift
to the PAMS Foundation in the process.
E n s u r e t w o L E G A C I E S
www. p a m s . n c s u . e d u pams_dev@ncsu.edu 9 1 9 - 5 1 5 - 3 4 6 2

Click tabs to swap between content that is broken into logical sections.

SPRING 2010
A new day for the mathematical
and statistical sciences
PAMS celebrates its first year in SAS Hall
IN THIS ISSUE 50 years of PAMS 4 Energy research update 12 PAMS Awards 16 “Professor of the Year” 18
scope A LO O K I N S I D E THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES
NC STATE UNIVERSITY
PAMS Foundation Board of Directors
PAMS Alumni & Friends Advisory Board
Officers
Benton Satterfield, President
Bill White, Vice President
Larry James, Secretary
General Members
Cindy Clark
Kim Deaner
Todd Fuller
Scott Guthrie
Robert Hill
Bob Jackson
Sherice Nivens
Glenn Osmond
Jack Penny
Er Ralston
Nancy Ridenhour
Pam Pittman Robinson
Aimee Tattersall
Joselyn Todd
Mike Trexler
Chip Wentz
Leigh Wilkinson
scope
Officers
Bill Trent, Chair
Cathy Sigal, Vice Chair
Anita Stallings, President
Michelle Duggins, Secretary
Kathy Hart, Treasurer
Charles Leffler, Assistant Treasurer
General Members
Susan Atkinson
Thomas Bregger
Charles Case
Roy Cromartie
Eric Doggett
Jonathan Earnhart
Kevin Eldridge
Ned Guttman
Kathy Harris
Don Johnson
Herbert Kirk
Karen Lackey
Rob Lindberg
Randy Miller
David Montgomery
Connie Moreadith
Mo Ogburn
Michael Peirson
Mitch Perry
Tom Rhodes
Phil Summa
Michael Thompson
Barton White
Bill White
Leigh Wilkinson
Mark Wyatt
Ji Zhang
Miriam Zietlow
Emeritus
Richard Cook
Scope is published by the College of
Physical and Mathematical Sciences.
The College is made up of internationally
recognized departments:
Chemistry
Marine, Earth & Atmospheric Sciences
Mathematics
Physics
Statistics
Molecular & Structural Biochemistry
Dean
Daniel Solomon
Managing Editor
Anita Stallings
Editor
Steve Townsend
Contributing Writers
Tracey Peake
Dave Pond
Beth Saulnier
Design
Zubigraphics
On the cover:
Department heads Sastry Pantula
(Statistics) and Loek Helminck
(Mathematics) in the SAS Hall atrium.
Photo by Roger Winstead.
12,500 copies of this public document
were printed at a cost of $8,176.00
or $.628 per copy.
SPRING 2010 in this issue...
4
6
14
22
Dean’s message
2 Golden anniversary provides a great opportunity to celebrate
our past, present and future
College news
3 Woodson named NC State’s 14th chancellor
4 A legacy of discovery: Celebrating 50 years of PAMS
6 A new day for the mathematical and statistical sciences
10 Unconventional student challenges conventional wisdom
Research highlights
12 PAMS has all kinds of energy
14 Under the surface: Acoustics researcher listens in to unravel the ocean’s mysteries
Honors
16 Sigal, Ambrose and Wilkinson honored at annual PAMS Awards Dinner
18 Beichner racks up teaching honors at state and national level
19 PAMS senior awarded Astronaut Scholarship
20 Sullivant earns Packard Fellowship
20 Aiyyer earns CAREER Award, keeps PAMS’ streak alive
21 Notables
Alumni and Development news
22 Life estate gift will provide a home base for coastal science researchers
24 PAMS launches Dean’s Circle to recognize leading donors
Just for Fun
15 State Climate Office recognizes young weather photographers
The College of Physical and Mathematical
Sciences turns 50 this year. I’m sure some of
you reading this think a half century sounds
like an eternity. For others, those closer to my
own age perhaps, 1960 doesn’t seem quite so
long ago. In reality, 50 years—while much of
a lifetime to a person—is actually a relatively
short period of time for an institution to come
as far as has PAMS.
When we were founded in 1960 as the
College of Physical Sciences and Applied
Mathematics (PSAM), it was primarily to serve
as teaching units to the rest of the growing uni-versity.
Today, we are leaders in research that
addresses many of society’s greatest challenges.
While we remain committed to our educa-tional
mission, we also have programs that
rank among the best in the nation in securing
competitive research and development fund-ing,
simultaneously advancing knowledge and
serving as an economic development engine
for the Research Triangle,North Carolina and
beyond.
Much of the credit for our success goes to
the men and women who have served this
college as faculty and staff throughout the
years, including my predecessors as dean:
Buck Menius, Garrett Briggs and Jerry
Whitten. Credit also goes to the thousands
of students who have infused our commu-nity
with energy and enthusiasm since our
first departments began offering classes near
the end of the 19th century.
As you explore this issue of Scope, I hope
you find that the proud tradition of excellence
that began in our earliest academic depart-ments
is as prevalent today as it ever was.
On these pages, you will learn more about
our 50th anniversary celebration.You will read
about the difference our newest facility, SAS
Hall, is having on the future of the mathemat-ical
and statistical sciences at NC State.You will
also see specific stories about the successes of
our current faculty and students as well as
alumni who remain connected to the univer-sity
and continue to bring us distinction in their
professional lives and their charitable works.
This is a wonderful time to be a part of the
PAMS family, and I look forward to celebrat-ing
our past, present and future with you
throughout 2010 and beyond.
Sincerely,
Daniel L. Solomon,Dean
2 SPRING 2010 | scope
When we were founded in 1960 as the College
of Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics,
it was primarily to serve as teaching units
to the rest of the growing university. Today,
we are leaders in research that addresses many
of society’s greatest challenges.
Dean Dan Solomon welcomes attendees of Scope Academy 2010. This year’s event had a record
attendance of more than 200 students, faculty, alumni and friends (see story on page 4).
Golden anniversary provides a great
opportunity to celebrate our past,
present and future
PHOTO BY MARC HALL
scope | SPRING 2010 3
William Randolph “Randy”Woodson, most
recently executive vice president for academic
affairs and provost at Purdue University, has
been named chancellor of North Carolina
State University. The appointment was
announced by University of North Carolina
President Erskine Bowles in Chapel Hill on
Jan. 8, following approval by the UNC Board
of Governors.
As Purdue’s chief academic officer,Woodson
was responsible for overseeing all academic
programs on the West Lafayette and four
regional campuses, as well as providing lead-ership
for Purdue’s libraries, student services,
admissions and enrollment management, grad-uate
school, continuing education, interna-tional
programs, diversity and inclusion, and
information technology.Under his leadership,
Purdue began to implement a new strategic
plan that calls for significant improvements in
student access and success, a doubling of
research volume, and a renewed emphasis on
meeting global challenges in the areas of food,
energy, climate and sustainability.He also is a
distinguished teacher and researcher special-izing
in the field of plant science.
“Personally and on behalf of the college, I
am very pleased to welcome the Woodsons to
the university,”said PAMS Dean Dan Solomon.
“Chancellor Woodson has a track record of suc-cess
in teaching, research and leadership and
has already declared his strong support of the
physical and mathematical sciences.”
Woodson became Purdue’s provost on May
1, 2008. Before that appointment, he served as
the Glenn W. Sample Dean of Agriculture for
nearly four years.Under Woodson’s leadership
as dean, the college hired more than 100 new
faculty; partnered with the College of Science
to launch the Climate Change Research Center;
developed or enhanced a number of student-success
programs such as leadership develop-ment
and study abroad; increased sponsored
research from $41.6 million in 2003–2004 to
$67 million; hired more than 100 new county
educators; and created the college’s Office of
Multicultural Programs.
In 1998 he was named associate dean of
agriculture and director of agricultural research
programs with responsibility for overseeing
Purdue’s research programs in agriculture,
including fiscal management. Other respon-sibilities
included program development and
direction, budgeting, pursuit of outside fund-ing
for research, and advocacy for agricultural
and natural resources research.
From 1996 to 1998,Woodson served as the
head of the Department of Horticulture and
Landscape Architecture.He directed the plant
biology program from 1995 to 1997.Woodson
became a full professor in the Department of
Horticulture and Landscape Architecture in
1993; he joined the Purdue faculty in 1985.
Woodson was raised in Fordyce,Arkansas,
where his parents were public school teachers.
He received a bachelor’s degree in horticulture
and chemistry from the University of Arkansas
and a master’s degree in horticulture and doc-torate
in horticulture/plant physiology from
Cornell University. He began his academic
career as an assistant professor of horticulture
at Louisiana State University.
Woodson is married to Susan Wynne
Woodson, a graphic designer and co-founder
of HELEN magazine. They have three chil-dren:
Samantha, a research librarian with the
American Institute of Economic Research in
Massachusetts; Patrick, a graduate student at
Purdue pursuing a master’s degree in envi-ronmental
engineering; and Chloe, a sopho-more
at Purdue majoring in photography and
visual arts.
Chancellor Randy Woodson and his wife, Susan
Wynne Woodson, respond to the crowd at a
campus-wide reception welcoming them to the
NC State community.
Woodson named
NC State’s 14th chancellor
PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
Since its founding in 1960, the college has
become a national leader in research, teach-ing
and outreach. Today, our faculty are
engaged in research that runs the gamut from
curiosity-driven, pure science to applied
research that addresses some of society’s
greatest challenges.At the same time,we con-tinue
to explore new techniques and tech-nologies
to help educate the next generation
of leaders for North Carolina, the nation and
the world.
Whether you are a longtime member of the
PAMS family or a new friend of NC State,we
hope you will join us in our yearlong celebra-tion
of the college’s founding. Some highlights
of the anniversary celebration include:
Scope Academy
We began our yearlong 50th anniversary
celebration by hosting the fifth installment of
our signature education outreach event, Scope
Academy. This year’s event, held Friday and
Saturday, April 9–10, kicked off with Friday
night departmental reunions at the Dail Club
in Carter-Finley Stadium. More than 200
alumni, friends and current and former fac-ulty
and staff came together to enjoy North
Carolina BBQ and reconnect with old friends.
Friday night’s guest speaker was NC State’s
head football coach, Tom O’Brien, who spoke
about “being a champion” in the classroom,
in the community and on the field.
Saturday’s festivities began with our tradi-tional
Scope Seminars, educational and enter-taining
classroom sessions led by our own
outstanding faculty and alumni. The event
concluded with the 2010 Scope/Harrelson
Lecture, presented by Neal Lane, Malcolm
Gillis University Professor at Rice University
and senior fellow of the James A. Baker III
Institute for Public Policy. In addition to his
distinguished career in academia, Lane served
from 1993 to 1998 as director of the National
Science Foundation and from 1998 to 2001 as
assistant to the president for science and tech-nology
and director of the White House Office
of Science and Technology Policy.
In honor of PAMS’ 50th anniversary, the
lecture was co-sponsored by NC State
University’s prestigious Harrelson Lecture
Series. The lecture can be viewed online at
www.pams.ncsu.edu.
BBQ on the Courtyard
On April 29, current and former PAMS
Council members hosted a student celebra-tion
on the newly dedicated Governors W.Kerr
Scott and Robert W. Scott Courtyard, the
grassy area outside the Marye Anne Fox
Undergraduate Student Teaching Laboratory.
There were a variety of games and activities,
including an opportunity for students to
“dunk” their favorite professors in a dunk tank.
All proceeds from this event benefitted PAMS’
student groups.
Retrospective Library Exhibit
PAMS and NC State Libraries have joined
forces to present A Legacy of Discovery:
Celebrating 50 Years of the College of Physical
and Mathematical Sciences. This exhibit will
explore the rich history of the physical and
mathematical sciences at NC State, some of
which predates the college itself.
4 SPRING 2010 | scope
Tom O’Brien Neal Lane
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of
the School of Physical Sciences and Applied Mathematics at NC
State , the precursor of the College of Physical and Mathematical
Sciences.We plan to celebrate this important milestone through-out
2010 with our students, alumni, faculty and friends.
A legacy of discovery:
Celebrating 50 years of PAMS
PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND
Since its founding in 1960, the College of Physical and
Mathematical Sciences (PAMS) has become a national leader in
research, teaching and outreach. Today, our faculty are engaged in
research that runs the gamut from curiosity-driven, pure science to
applied research that addresses some of society’s greatest
challenges. At the same time, we continue to explore new
techniques and technologies to help educate the next generation
of leaders for North Carolina, the nation and the world.
Whether you are a longtime member of the PAMS family or a new
friend of NC State, we hope you will join us in our yearlong
celebration of the college’s founding.
REDISCOVER PAMS
www.pams.ncsu.edu/50 pams_info@ncsu.edu 919-515-3462
Scope Academy – April 9-10, 2010
Highlights include departmental reunions
and keynote addresses by former White
House science advisor and NSF director
Neal Lane and Wolfpack head football
coach Tom O’Brien.
Retrospective Exhibit – Fall 2010
PAMS and NC State Libraries have joined
forces to present A Legacy of Discovery.
This exhibit will explore the rich history of
the physical and mathematical sciences
at NC State.
BBQ on the Courtyard – April 29, 2010
Current and former PAMS Council
members will host a student celebration
on the newly dedicated Governors W.
Kerr Scott and Robert W. Scott Courtyard.
6 SPRING 2010 | scope
The 119,000 square-foot building houses
state-of-the-art classrooms, computer labs,
tutorial centers and meeting and study space
for students and faculty from NC State’s
mathematics and statistics departments.
Quickly approaching the end of its first full
academic year of use, SAS Hall has already
had a profound impact on the faculty and
staff of its two departments and students
across the university.
Last May, NC State formally dedicated SAS Hall as the univer-sity’s
new home for mathematics and statistics.Construction
of the $32 million building was made possible by the Higher
Education Bond Referendum passed by North Carolinians in
2000, as well as by gifts from private donors, including a sub-stantial
contribution from Cary-based software company, SAS.
A new day for the mathematical
and statistical sciences
A great facility worthy of
a great tradition
NC State boasts a longstanding tradition of
excellence in teaching and research in mathe-matics
and statistics. The university ranks fifth
nationally in both total research and develop-ment
expenditures and in competitive federal
research and development expenditures in the
mathematical and statistical sciences. The
Department of Mathematics is one of the
largest producers of doctoral degrees in math-ematics
in the nation. The Department of
Statistics is among the nation’s oldest and most
prestigious, having been founded by renowned
statistician Gertrude Cox in 1941.
“NC State’s mathematical and statistical sci-ence
programs rank among the best in the
nation,” says PAMS Dean Dan Solomon.“We
now have a state-of-the-art facility that is wor-thy
of the stature of our students and faculty.”
Loek Helminck, head of the Department of
Mathematics, agrees, adding that the new
building not only reflects the two departments’
current quality, but will help perpetuate it.
“We are both already recognized as top
departments, but our new home helps proj-ect
that image of quality to everyone who
walks through our doors, including prospec-tive
students and faculty” Helminck says.
Recalling the cramped, noisy corridors and
offices of his department’s former home, he
adds with a smile,“Let’s just say Harrelson Hall
could be a tough sell to prospective faculty.”
In contrast to Harrelson Hall and some of
the other previous homes of the two depart-ments,
SAS Hall features spacious, flexible spaces
for classrooms and student labs, faculty and
graduate student offices, study areas and more.
A partnership with Cisco has helped ensure
that all these great spaces also have great tech-nology.
The company provided state-of-the-art
telephones, routers and other infrastruc-ture
that immediately made SAS Hall one of
the most technologically advanced teaching
facilities on campus.
Mathematics graduate student Catherine
Buell appreciates both the technology and the
overall quality of the environment the new
building provides.
“The classrooms are well-equipped with
great teaching tools that add to the learning
experience,” Buell says. “Honestly, I walk into
SAS Hall and I immediately feel like I am at a
university that has high expectations and is
proud of its mathematics program.My mind
still says,‘Wow!’whenever I enter the building.”
While the high-tech classrooms and offices
have received high praise, the spaces that mem-bers
of both departments seem to have found
the most beneficial are the common areas
directly off the four-story main atrium.
“I’ve been amazed by how much I can find
out about what’s going on in the department
simply by going over there with my brown bag
lunch or to get a cup of coffee,” says Sastry
Pantula, head of the Department of Statistics.
Both departments’ common areas—math-ematics’
on the fourth floor and statistics’ on
the fifth—seem to be brimming with activity
all day long. That activity can take the shape
of lunchtime seminars, student study groups,
scope | SPRING 2010 7
Mathematics and Statistics Department Heads Loek Helminck (left) and Sastry Pantula (right) flank
(from left to right) Ginger and John Sall and Jim and Ann Goodnight of SAS.
PHOTOS BY MARC HALL
potlucks, even a weekly game of Bridge.
Faculty and students are finding that the
proximity of the various offices, meeting
rooms and common areas in the new build-ing
are leading to greater communication and
collaboration across the two departments as
well as within. The departments are investi-gating
ways to further foster and benefit from
this newfound synergy.
Providing for all future mathe-maticians
and statisticians…
even the really young ones
One room in the new SAS Hall that may
not get a lot of attention, but that is greatly
appreciated by those who use it, is the Baby
Care Room on the fifth floor.While still a rel-atively
new concept, lactation and baby care
rooms have been found to benefit new par-ents
on college campuses and other workplaces
across the country.
Statistics graduate student Breanne Cameron
has found that having a comfortable, private
baby care space nearby has made life a lot easier
for her and her baby, Geoffrey.
“Prior to the move to SAS Hall, there were
several instances where I had to change Geoff’s
diaper in the hallway with an audience or try
to find an empty room for privacy to feed
him,” Cameron recalls. “The new Baby Care
Room is the first room I have encountered on
this campus with a changing table, sink and
comfortable chair to give Geoff everything he
needs while on campus.”
Cameron says she hopes to see more facil-
PHOTOS BY ROGER WINSTEAD
8 SPRING 2010 | scope
Students, faculty and staff alike benefit from a
wide variety of spacious, “connected” classrooms,
labs and meeting spaces in SAS Hall.
ities at NC State use SAS Hall as a model and
to see the campus, as a whole, continue to
become more infant and toddler—and
parent—friendly.
Where mathematics
meets design
Two of the dominant decorative elements
of the new SAS Hall—a mobile that hangs in
the main atrium and a spiral in the stone plaza
outside its main entrance—were inspired by
the Golden Ratio and visual constructions
based upon it.
The lobby mobile, titled Essentia, was
inspired by a gift from SAS to the College of
Physical and Mathematical Sciences and is the
work of Colorado-based artist Barbara Baer.
In a unique partnership between colleges, the
piece was designed and created over the course
of the Spring 2009 semester by the following
students in NC State’s College of Design:
Samuel Lewis Davis III,Marie Hermansson,
Margaret Jamison,Michelle Ko, Elena “E”Page
and Claudia Povenski.
The students worked with guidance from
Barbara Baer and under the direction and sup-port
of Jan-Ru Wan, David Knight and other
faculty and staff from the College of Design.
Other artwork in the building, ranging from
paintings to hanging textured pieces to free-standing
sculptures,were donated by SAS. The
company is widely known for the high qual-ity
and diversity of the artwork on its corpo-rate
campuses, which it periodically makes
available for public viewing.
Why SAS Hall?
SAS was born out of a research project that
began in the NC State Department of Statistics
in the early 1970s. Since then, the company
has grown into one of the largest software
providers in the world and was recently voted
the nation’s best company to work for by
Forbes. Two of the company’s founders, CEO
Jim Goodnight and Executive Vice President
John Sall, as well as their spouses, remain close
partners and staunch supporters of the depart-ments
and the university.
“At SAS, we believe that it is vital for stu-dents
in the mathematical and statistical sci-ences
to learn in an environment that provides
state-of-the-art facilities and instructional tech-nologies,”
Sall said at last year’s dedication cer-emony.
“It’s also critical that they participate
in the kind of collaborative initiatives they’ll
experience in the work place. That type of
environment produces the type of employee
and person we want at SAS, and it’s the type
we want to produce at NC State. That’s why
we decided to make a significant contribution
toward ensuring that this building would
become a reality.”
Having the name of one of the most
respected companies in America certainly
doesn’t hurt, either.
“Having ‘SAS’ on the outside of this build-ing
immediately positions us as a computa-tional
and analytical hub,” says Sastry Pantula.
“This is a magnet, a destination, for anyone
who wants to work and study in our fields.”
SAS Hall receives
architectural honor
SAS Hall isn’t just receiving accolades from its new residents. The building received an
honor award at the 2009 American Institute of Architecture (AIA) South Atlantic Region con-ference
held last fall in Greenville, SC.
Twenty projects were selected from more than 200 entries submitted by AIA South Atlantic
Region members. The South Atlantic Region includes North Carolina, South Carolina and
Georgia. The Park Shops renovation project—located across Stinson Drive from SAS Hall—
also received an honor award.
scope | SPRING 2010 9
PHOTO BY PAUL HUBBARD
PHOTO COURTESY OF PEARCE, BRINKLEY, CEASE + LEE
10 SPRING 2010 | scope
After all, this was in a course that has been
taught essentially the same way since the 19th
century, and the textbook, Introduction to
Electrodynamics,written by David Griffiths of
Reed College in Oregon, is the most com-monly
used advanced-undergraduate elec-tricity
and magnetism text in the world. In its
third edition, it has been pored over by tens of
thousands of students.
A problem with momentum
Babson’s issues weren’t about some arcane
wrinkle in a calculation. He was concerned
with the most basic of principles: conserva-tion
of momentum in a problem involving
electric and magnetic fields. Although the text
used in the course solved a particular problem
three separate ways, Babson found one of the
ways to be inconsistent.
It has been known for a century that
charges and their associated fields can sepa-rately
have momentum, but the total net
momentum of a system at rest must be zero.
The momentum in the fields is balanced by a
peculiar relativistic effect called hidden
momentum that was discovered long after
Einstein’s formulation of the theory of rela-tivity
in 1905. Babson convinced Reynolds
that the fundamental issue of determining the
momentum associated with fields was mis-treated
in at least one of the means used in
Griffiths’ example describing the principle.
Reynolds asked Babson to look more closely
at the other two means Griffiths had used.
“The examples in the book involved ideal-ized
systems with objects that filled all space
or were infinitesimally small,” Babson says.
“What I did is consider numerically developed
models of similar systems that didn’t allow for
such unphysical objects.”
Using careful numerical calculations involv-ing
real-world situations proved Babson was
onto something.With Reynolds’ help, this
novice student had discovered in Griffiths’ text
a basic misunderstanding involving the
momentum associated with electromagnetic
fields, and thus a misinterpretation of the so-called
hidden momentum.
Babson carefully described his calculations
and one Friday afternoon sent an e-mail to
Griffiths while Reynolds quickly fired off an
e-mail of his own—colleague to colleague.
“I wanted to be sure he knew Dave wasn’t
Unconventional
student
challenges
conventional
wisdom
While the frontiers of physics continue to advance, the core of the discipline is remarkably stable.
From the mechanics sorted out by Newton to the electricity described by Ampere, the principles
taught to students in classical physics classes have changed precious little in more than 100 years.
Thus, it was with no small amount of skepticism last spring when NC State Physics Professor Stephen
Reynolds listened to his student,David Babson, explain how something didn’t quite ring true in a
text used in Reynolds’ electricity and magnetism class for junior physics majors.
David Babson
just some kook,”Reynolds admits now.
Griffiths responded within a matter of hours,
thanking Babson for discovering the error.He
then began a dialogue with Babson, Reynolds
and Robin Bjorkquist, one of his own under-graduate
students at Reed College. The fruitful
and extensive series of communications between
the four led to their publication of an article,
titled “Hidden Momentum, Field Momentum,
and Electromagnetic Impulse,”that clarifies the
concept of the nature of the conservation of
momentum in the presence of electromagnetic
fields. The article appeared in the September
issue of the American Journal of Physics.
And, not surprisingly, the upcoming fourth
edition of Griffiths’ textbook will include the
correction.
Not your average
physics student
Finding a fundamental error in the text-book
wasn’t the only thing that made David
Babson stand out in Stephen Reynolds’ under-graduate
electricity and magnetism class.
For one thing, he is a 44-year-old husband
and father of two who has already earned a BS
from Brown University and an MS from
Cornell University, both in computer science.
He’s also competed in several triathlons and
ranks among the top triathletes in North
Carolina for his age class.Most notably, he has
already been so successful in business that he
has been “retired” for three years and decided
to pursue a PhD in physics at NC State (he was
in Reynolds�� undergraduate class to brush up
on some physics fundamentals).
In just over a decade, Babson co-founded,
built and sold three venture-backed technol-ogy
companies.With a total investment of just
$10 million, his three companies have sold for
an aggregated $52.5 million. In 2004, he and
his partners, Mike Doernberg and Ken
Romley,were recognized by North Carolina’s
Council for Entrepreneurial Development for
their success as serial entrepreneurs.
Babson’s most recent company, SmartPath,
became the leader in marketing operations
software.He co-founded the company in 1999
and served as chief operating officer until
SmartPath was sold to DoubleClick for $24
million in 2004. The SmartPath software is
used to manage the marketing activities at a
number of leading companies.
Prior to SmartPath, Babson and his part-ners
created an Internet professional services
company, the Marathon Group,which devel-oped
the e-commerce and online branding for
Wrangler,Healthtex,Volvo and RJ Reynolds,
among others. The company sold for $15 mil-lion
to Merant in 1999.
The first company Babson started was
Burl Software which offered a software analy-sis
tool, Revolve, to help programmers main-tain
and update large, complex software
systems. Burl was founded in 1991 and sold
in 1995 for $13.5 million to Microfocus.
Babson began his career at Bellcore in 1988.
During his three years at the telephony
research and development center, he earned
four software patents for inventing the next
generation network signaling software which
handles every one of the 400 million “800
number”phone calls placed in North America
each day. In 1991, he was awarded R&D
Magazine’s “Top 100 Inventions of the Year”
and was featured on the cover of Bellcore’s
annual report.
As David Babson continues his career in the
graduate program in physics at NC State, he
will keep a careful eye out for anything that
doesn’t ring true. While he may not ever
uncover any inconsistencies as deep or as pro-found
as those involved in the “hidden
momentum” now described in an important
journal article that bears his name, rest assured
that all of the physics texts he confronts—
from optics to relativity to nuclear physics—
will be studied with a careful eye and a
willingness to question whether everything he
reads is physically correct.
PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
PHOTOS COURTESY OF DAVID BABSON
scope | SPRING 2010 11
Babson, pictured below with his family,
is among the top triathletes for his age class.
Researchers in PAMS, the College of
Engineering and the College of Education
have received a three-year, $1.2 million grant
from the National Science Foundation’s
Center for Chemical Innovation (NSF-CCI)
to pursue research in the emerging field of
molecular spintronics. The grant will fund
a center for molecular spintronics at NC
State and support a research coalition
between scientists at NC State and UNC-Chapel
Hill with the aim of using this tech-nology
to develop smaller, faster, more
energy-efficient electronic devices with
increased storage capability.
David Shultz, professor of chemistry, is the
principal investigator. NC State co-PIs include
Dan Dougherty,Marco Buongiorno-Nardelli
and Jack Rowe from physics; Joe Tracy from
materials science and engineering; and Gail
Jones from math, science and technology edu-cation.
The grant is one of four awarded
nationally by the NSF.
Molecular spintronics refers to the use of
designed molecules containing electrons that
are not involved in chemical bonds. These elec-trons
have small magnetic fields which can
then be utilized to power electronic devices
with more memory storage capability, faster
operation and lower energy usage.
“This is a combination of materials science
and chemistry that goes beyond mere nan-otechnology,”
Shultz says, “and that has the
advantage of taking the field of electronics
PHOTOS BY ROGER WINSTEAD
NSF grant will
help researchers
develop smaller,
faster electronic
devices
PAMS HAS A
Two new grants will allo
energy technologies whi
David Shultz
12 SPRING 2010 | scope
beyond the current limitations we have when
working with materials like silicon.”
The grant also allows the research team to
focus on outreach and training for a new gen-eration
of scientists specializing in this tech-nology
by providing funding for graduate
courses and other educational activities.
“It is an effort not only to use designed mol-ecules
to build new devices, but also to train
future researchers and workers who can bring
this technology into the world and market-place,”
Buongiorno-Nardelli says.
Mitchell receives
grant to study
nuclear safety,
waste reuse
While furthering our knowledge in new
fields like molecular spintronics will be vital
as we attempt to meet the ever-growing
demand for energy, so too will improving our
understanding of making existing technolo-gies
cleaner and safer.
To this end, Gary Mitchell, professor emer-itus
of physics, has received an $800,000 grant
from the National Nuclear Security Admin-istration
(NNSA) to explore ways to reuse or
otherwise safely dispose of waste from nuclear
power plants.
Mitchell will serve as lead investigator on
the project titled, “Cross Sections, Level
Densities and Strength Functions.”
“Nuclear energy is easier to utilize than solar
or wind energy, but if we want to start think-ing
about building more reactors to help alle-viate
our dependence on fossil fuels, we have
to have a solution to deal with the byproducts
from those reactors,”Mitchell says.“What we’re
looking at is an alternate fuel cycle that pro-duces
a different sort of waste, and at reusing
this waste in order to reduce the total amount
of nuclear waste.”
The award is part of more than $20 million
in NNSA grants awarded to 28 researchers
from 18 states. This award was made possible
through the NNSA’s Stewardship Science
Academic Alliances (SSAA) program.
scope | SPRING 2010 13
PAMS establishes graduate student fund
in Mitchell’s honor
In honor of Gary Mitchell’s distinguished career and in gratitude for his passion for the growth and mentorship of young students and scien-tists,
a group of his colleagues and former students have established the Gary E. Mitchell Graduate Support Endowment. The fund provides annual
support for one graduate student in NC State’s Department of Physics.
The fundraising efforts are spearheaded by Larry James (PhD ’89 Physics) and other students who worked under Mitchell at the Triangle
Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL), including John Shriner, Sharon Stephenson and Jeff Vanhoy. Contributions continue to be accepted to
grow the endowment and provide additional student support. For more information or to contribute, please contact the PAMS Office of College
Advancement at pams_dev@ncsu.edu or 919-515-3462.
ALL KINDS OF ENERGY
ow NC State researchers to develop emerging
ile making existing ones cleaner and safer
Gary Mitchell
Del Bohnenstiehl has his ears tuned to what’s
happening at the bottom of oceans.An expert
in underwater acoustics, Bohnenstiehl is work-ing
to improve the understanding of earth-quakes—
like the ones that cause tsunamis
—and add to a body of knowledge that may
someday save lives by detecting disasters early
enough for more people to flee to safety.
Bohnenstiehl, an assistant professor of
marine, earth and atmospheric sciences, stud-ies
earthquakes using underwater microphones
called hydrophones. Seismometers, he says,
have difficulty detecting small earthquakes in
the middle of the ocean, but hydrophones can
capture extremely faint sounds over thousands
of kilometers. “If we listen for earthquakes
using hydrophones, we get thousands of
events,” he says.“In some cases, if we were just
listening from land,we would think an area is
totally quiet.”
Though hydrophones alone wouldn’t offer
an early warning system against tsunamis, he
says, they’re valuable in studying them.
Tsunamis are only associated with earthquakes
that rupture the seafloor. The shallower the
earthquake is, the louder the acoustic signal it
makes, he says. Examining the amplitude of
the T-wave—the signal that’s generated by the
earthquake—provides an estimate of how
deep the event is.
This better data collection is essential to
understanding phenomena such as under-water
fault zones and volcanoes that cause
earthquakes and also could apply to faults on
land that threaten major cities.“Most current
research aims at characterizing earthquakes
in particular areas through tracking data like
size and frequency,” he says. “We’re learning
a lot more about how one earthquake influ-ences
another, how that promotes failures in
other regions.”
Bohnenstiehl’s work studying underwater
noise via hydrophones is in high demand for
projects in fields ranging from biology to geol-ogy.
It has taken him around the globe, to
research sites in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian
oceans and even to Antarctica.While some
microphones are close enough to shore to be
connected via cable to monitoring stations,
most are anchored by weights on the sea floor.
Researchers collect them every two years or so.
“Earthquakes, ship noise, whales,” says
Bohnenstiehl, an Illinois native who first saw
an ocean at age 12. “Acoustically, the ocean is
a very happening place.”
And it’s only getting busier. In another proj-ect,
Bohnenstiehl uses hydrophones to study
noisy ice, which may threaten marine mam-mals.
Global warming causes the glaciers to
melt, he says, and huge chunks fall into the
ocean. Icebergs that break off the Antarctic
Peninsula can vibrate and hum, he says, and
some of the signals are loud.With noise lev-els
rising due to humming icebergs as well as
human activities like ship traffic and oil
drilling, marine mammals are increasingly vul-nerable
because they use sound to navigate
and communicate.
“A whale uses its sonar for all sorts of
things—talking to other whales, finding a
mate, hunting for food,” Bohnenstiehl says.
“The whale is a large animal, so for it to dive
down and look for food takes a lot of energy.
And if it’s unsuccessful on a number of dives
because the ocean is noisier, that energy is lost.”
Bohnenstiehl records the calls of the whales,
supporting studies of migration.He also has
been aiding biologists in studying creatures
that live in deep hydrothermal vents in other
work that involves predicting seafloor erup-tions.
The summer before last, he worked on
a pilot study on fish populations in the Florida
Keys, determining whether sound helps lar-vae
migrate back to their home reef and what
impact a noisier coastline might have on them.
Underwater acoustics, he says,“is an area where
you can apply many things—biology, geol-ogy,
physics, chemistry. There’s so much we
don’t know; on any given day we��ll hear things,
and no one can tell you what they are. So there
are all these mysteries to be unraveled.”
This article originally appeared in the Winter
2009 issue of NC State magazine, which is a
benefit of membership in the North Carolina
State University Alumni Association.
14 SPRING 2010 | scope
PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
Under the surface: Acoustics researcher listens in
to unravel the ocean’s mysteries
Del Bohnenstiehl
The State Climate Office of North Carolina
(SCO) last summer held its second annual
weather photography contest. The contest was
open to photographers between the ages of 7
and 16, with the stipulation that the photo
must have been taken in North Carolina. The
first-place winner received a rain gauge, an NC
State prize pack and a tour of the SCO offices
on Centennial Campus. Second- and third-place
winners received NC State prize packs.
The State Climate Office of North Carolina
is the primary source for North Carolina
weather and climate information and is
involved in all aspects of climate research, edu-cation,
and extension services. For more infor-mation,
please visit www.nc-climate.ncsu.edu.
State Climate
Office recognizes
young weather
photographers
FIRST PLACE — Avery Locklear, 9th Grade, Winston-Salem, NC
THIRD PLACE — Heather Patrick, 7th Grade, Creedmoor, NC
SECOND PLACE — Kara Stonecypher, 7th Grade, Chapel Hill, NC
scope | SPRING 2010 15
The College of Physical and Mathematical
Sciences continued its tradition of celebrating
the achievements of its alumni and friends at
the annual PAMS Awards Dinner, held last
December at the Cardinal Club in downtown
Raleigh. This year’s honorees all boast impres-sive
professional resumes and unparalleled
service to NC State and PAMS.
Cathy Sigal
Distinguished Alumna Award
Catherine T. Sigal (BS ’76 Chemistry) was
selected as the College’s 2009 Distinguished
Alumna. Established in 1990, the PAMS
Distinguished Alumni Award recognize alumni
whose exceptional achievements in business,
education, research or public service have
brought honor and distinction to PAMS and
NC State.
Sigal came to North Carolina as an NC State
freshman in 1972.While she was born in New
York and raised primarily in Michigan and
Mississippi, her family had a history with both
the state and university. Her father, Thomas
Teague, grew up in Fairmont,North Carolina,
and received a BS in electrical engineering
from NC State in 1936.
Sigal had an outstanding academic career
at NC State, serving as a distinguished North
Carolina Fellow—which later became part of
the Caldwell Fellows Program, one of the uni-versity’s
most competitive and prestigious
scholarship programs—and graduated as vale-dictorian
with a bachelor’s degree in chem-istry.
She went on to receive master’s degrees
in chemistry from Harvard and chemical engi-neering
from MIT and a PhD in molecular
biology from Princeton and served as a post-doctoral
fellow at the National Institutes of
Health.
While working for Mobil Research and
Development Labs, she received three patents
for her work in developing new catalysts for
petrochemical manufacturing. She subse-quently
moved to Merck Research Labs where
she designed and scaled-up new processes for
the production of drugs and vaccines.
Most recently, Sigal traveled the world as
the director of international research for the
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, where
she oversaw JDRF’s international research
portfolio and worked to build partnerships
with governmental agencies outside the U.S.
to co-fund diabetes research.
Not only has Sigal made numerous signifi-cant
impacts throughout her professional career,
her commitment to students is unwavering. She
has created the Irving S. Sigal Postdoctoral
Fellowship with the American Chemical Society
which provides a stipend to a scientist whose
work addresses a significant problem involving
both chemistry and biology.
She serves the College as vice-chair of the
PAMS Foundation Board and as a member of
the investment committee, where, according
to PAMS Dean Dan Solomon,“Her thought-ful
questions and comments have made her
our own version of E.F.Hutton.When Cathy
speaks up,we know it’s something we should
listen to.”
Sigal has left a permanent mark on PAMS
and NC State by endowing the Thomas S.
Teague Scholarship in memory of her father,
which supports both undergraduate students
majoring in one of the PAMS disciplines and
students majoring in electrical engineering.
She is also a strong supporter of annual giv-ing
for PAMS and has joined the Dean’s Circle
as a founding member.
Dick Ambrose
Zenith Medal for Service
Richard J. “Dick”Ambrose was selected as
the recipient of the College’s 2009 Zenith
Medal for Service. Established in 2005, this
award recognizes alumni or friends of PAMS
for distinguished contributions or advocacy
that significantly advance our ability to make
powerful impacts on science, the economy, the
environment and the quality of human life.
A staunch advocate for PAMS, for NC State,
and for education in general for more than
three decades,Ambrose was raised in the small
town of Girard, Ohio, just outside of
Youngstown. He pursued both his under-graduate
and graduate degrees in his home
state, earning his BS in chemistry from
Bowling Green State University in 1964 and
his PhD in polymer science from the Uni-versity
of Akron in 1968.
After college,Ambrose went to work for the
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, where,
over the next decade, he would rise from
research scientist to senior research scientist
to group leader in the exploratory polymer-ization
program.
In 1979, he left Firestone for Lord Corpor-ation,
a worldwide leader in adhesives and coat-ings,
vibration and motion control, and
magnetically responsive technologies.Ambrose
spent the next 28 years at Lord, retiring in 2007
as the company’s vice president of research and
technology—and with 21 patents in various
areas of polymer science and processing.
Ambrose’s relationship with NC State began
in the mid 1980s, shortly after Lord moved its
headquarters from Erie, Pennsylvania, to Cary.
He served as an adjunct faculty member in the
College of Textiles from 1986 to 1995, and he
served on the PAMS Foundation Board of
Directors from 1989 to 2000.
“While his service in these ‘official’ roles has
been invaluable, it doesn’t begin to tell the entire
story of his impact on PAMS and NC State,”
said PAMS Dean Dan Solomon.“Dick’s belief
in the mutual benefits of industrial support of
higher education has led to longstanding rela-tionships
with Lord Corporation across our
college and throughout the university.”
Perhaps the most notable of these relation-ships
is the partnership between Lord and the
Center for Research in Scientific Computation
(CRSC) in the Department of Mathematics.
From its initial partnership with Lord
Corporation, CRSC’s Industrial Applied
Mathematics Program—under the direction
of Professor Tom Banks—has grown to
include some 20 corporate and governmental
partners and has trained dozens of students
to successfully communicate across disciplines
and bridge the gap between academics and
industry.
Over the years,Ambrose has leveraged Lord
Corporation resources and provided his own
personal support for PAMS and NC State.He
made possible the Lord Corporation/CRSC
Graduate Fellowship Program in mathemat-ics
and the Lord Corporation Distinguished
16 SPRING 2010 | scope
Sigal,Ambrose and Wilkinson honored
at annual PAMS Awards Dinner
Professorship in chemistry, and he established
the Marsha Ambrose Endowment for The
Science House in honor of his wife.
Leigh Wilkinson
Medal of Achievement
Leigh Wilkinson (BS ’82 Mathematics) was
selected as the recipient of the College’s 2009
Medal of Achievement. Established in 2005,
this award recognizes early- to mid-career
alumni of PAMS who have excelled through
their chosen professions or public service, and
proven themselves destined to make a signif-icant
impact in science, government, educa-tion,
business or industry.
A lifelong North Carolinian,Wilkinson was
born in Asheboro and raised in Robeson
County. She attended Maxton High School
where she was both valedictorian and class
president her senior year.Wilkinson had con-tinued
success as an undergraduate student at
NC State, graduating magna cum laude with
a BS in mathematics in 1982.
While Wilkinson went on to earn her JD
from UNC-Chapel Hill in 1985, PAMS Dean
Dan Solomon reminded everyone that NC
State was responsible for her pursuit of a law
degree.
“While Chapel Hill gets credit for confer-ring
Leigh’s law degree,we still get to take credit
for planting the seed,” Solomon said. “Leigh
admits that it was an adjunct instructor at NC
State, who was also an attorney in Raleigh, who
encouraged her to take the LSAT and pursue
a legal career.”
After graduating from law school,
Wilkinson joined the law firm of Ward and
Smith, P.A., and has been practicing in the
firm’s New Bern office ever since. She became
a shareholder ofWard and Smith in 1990 and
currently serves as the chair of the firm’s Health
Care Practice Group. She has also served as
chair of the Law School Recruitment
Committee and as a member of the
Professional Development Committee and the
Attorney Evaluation Committee.
She is a member of the North Carolina
Society of Health Care Attorneys; the North
Carolina and American Bar Associations; the
Craven County Bar Association; the Medical
Group Managers Association; and the
American Health Lawyers Association. She was
recognized in the 2010 edition of Best Lawyers
in America in the practice area of health care.
Wilkinson has also been recognized on
many occasions for her extensive community
service, particularly in her adopted home town
of New Bern. She is a three-time recipient of
Tryon Civitan Club’s President’s Award; two-time
recipient of Tryon Civitan Club’s Honor
Key Award; 2007 recipient of North Carolina
District East Honor Key Award; Craven
County Distinguished Woman Award; Big
Brothers Big Sisters Big Sister of the Year
Award;New Bern Area Chamber Volunteer of
the Year Award; the Coastal Women’s Forum
President’s Award; and she is the recipient of
a special recognition by former North Carolina
Governor Jim Hunt for her volunteerism.
Since her days on campus,Wilkinson has
remained an active supporter of PAMS and
NC State. She is a founding member, inaugu-ral
president and current board member of
the PAMS Alumni and Friends Advisory
Board; a founding member of the PAMS
Dean’s Circle; a member of the PAMS
Foundation Board of Directors; a member of
the Coastal Region review team for the Park
Scholarships; and a lifetime member of the
NC State Alumni Association.
scope | SPRING 2010 17
Dean Dan Solomon with award recipients Cathy Sigal, Leigh Wilkinson and Dick Ambrose.
PHOTO BY MARC HALL
His contributions to science education, from
co-authoring a top-selling physics textbook to
literally changing how our students are edu-cated
in the classroom, reach far beyond the
boundaries of our own campus. Earlier this year,
Beichner was recognized for his efforts, and
named North Carolina Professor of the Year by
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching and the Council for Advancement
and Support of Education (CASE).
“I’ve had the privilege to learn from the
teaching of many talented individuals in a wide
variety of fields of study,” says NC State jun-ior
Nicko Guyer. “The teachers I find I learn
the most from always love the material that
they teach, love teaching it, and earnestly want
their students to be able to understand what
it is they have to offer. This is exactly the type
of teacher that Dr. Beichner is.”
Beichner’s innovative work with SCALE-UP
(Student-Centered Active Learning
Environment for Undergraduate Programs)
has caught on around the country,with more
than 100 schools—including MIT,Clemson,
and the University of Alabama—investing in
similar programs. The project borrows
methodology and teaching efforts proven to
be successful in small class settings, such as
hands-on activities, simulations and round-table
discussions, and adapts them for use in
larger classrooms.
It’s a concept that has proven wildly suc-cessful
for Beichner, who also was named
2009–2010 Outstanding Undergraduate
Science Teacher by the Society for College
Science Teachers and the National Science
Teachers Association last fall.
18 SPRING 2010 | scope
Beichner racks up teaching honors
at state and national level
Bob Beichner has long been
regarded as an expert not only
in his field, but also as a
teacher and a mentor with an
uncanny ability to influence
the lives and careers of his stu-dents
and colleagues alike.
PHOTO BY DAO NGUYEN
Bob Beichner with students in the SCALE-UP classroom at NC State. SCALE-UP classrooms are
specially designed to increase constructive interaction among students and between students and
instructors. They have proven to have a significant impact on student performance.
“The SCALE-UP techniques Bob has devel-oped
have had a huge impact on the success of
students not just at NC State, but around the
world,” says PAMS Dean Dan Solomon.“It is
particularly striking that success rates among
females and racial minorities increase dramat-ically
in a SCALE-UP setting compared to a tra-ditional
classroom. These are groups that are
historically underrepresented in the sciences
and engineering and are needed in much
greater numbers in the science, technology, engi-neering
and mathematics (STEM) workforce.”
Beichner, the director of NC State’s STEM
Education Initiative, says the modifications
SCALE-UP offers are a benefit to both faculty
and students.
“There is a lot of research that shows being
actively involved with what you are trying to
learn helps you learn, it makes it easier to learn
and you learn it better,” Beichner says. “What
we’ve done that is different is find a way to
make it work even in classes at a university the
size of NC State.
“Instead of me talking at 100 students, I’m
able to go around the room and talk with
smaller numbers of students,”he says.“There’s
much more faculty-to-student and student-to-
student interaction than you would find in
a regular classroom setting.”
The U.S. Professors of the Year program
salutes the most outstanding undergraduate
instructors in the country—those who excel as
teachers and influence the lives and careers of
their students. One professor is chosen from
each state, as well as the District of Columbia
and Guam. The Outstanding Undergraduate
Science Teacher program, on the other hand,
names a single award winner for the entire
nation.
“These professors have a passion for teach-ing
that sparks a passion for learning in their
students,” CASE president John Lippincott
said. “As great teachers, they combine a pro-found
knowledge of their disciplines with cre-ative
teaching methods to engage students
within and outside of the classroom.”
Dean Solomon agrees. “Bob has devoted his
career to improving the way we teach—and
students learn—science at the university level,”
he said.“His very presence has allowed us to
attract other STEM education experts to NC
State, creating a community of faculty whose
research will put the university at the forefront
in this area and further improve postsecondary
STEM education for generations to come.”
For more information on SCALE-UP, please
visit http://scaleup.ncsu.edu/.
scope | SPRING 2010 19
PHOTO COURTESY OF NC STATE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
PAMS senior awarded
Astronaut Scholarship
NC State senior Brittany Boudreaux was awarded a $10,000 scholarship from the Astronaut
Scholarship Foundation (ASF). The scholarship was presented to Boudreaux by Apollo 16
astronaut and moonwalker Charlie Duke during a campus ceremony last September.
Boudreaux is completing double majors in applied mathematics and civil engineering.
After Hurricane Katrina, she spent the summer of 2006 as an engineering aide at the New
Orleans District Corps of Engineers assisting project managers overseeing levee recon-struction.
She co-authored an article accepted for publication in Inverse Problems in Science
and Engineering. Boudreaux plans to pursue a PhD and aspires to forestall future disasters
such as the levee failure in New Orleans.
Boudreaux is one of 17 students nationwide to receive this scholarship. The Astronaut
Scholarships are awarded annually to students who show exceptional performance in the
fields of science, engineering or mathematics. Recipients must exhibit motivation, imagi-nation
and intellectual daring, as well as exceptional performance, both in and outside the
classroom.
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation is a non-profit organization established by the
Mercury Astronauts in 1984 with the goal of aiding the United States in retaining its world
leadership in science and technology. The ASF has awarded more than $2.8 million in schol-arships
to date, including $188,000 to NC State students.
Brittany Boudreaux with Apollo 16 astronaut
and moonwalker Charlie Duke
Seth Sullivant, assistant professor of math-ematics,
has been awarded a prestigious
Packard Fellowship for Science and
Engineering from the David and Lucile
Packard Foundation. The award is valued at
$875,000 over five years.
Sullivant is one of only 16 recipients of the
2009 Packard Fellowships for Science and
Engineering and the only mathematician to
receive the award in 2009. Previous to this
award, there have been only three Packard
Fellows selected from NC State – two of which
were from PAMS – and only 21 fellowships
have ever been awarded in mathematics.
Sullivant joined NC State in 2008, after
serving three years as a Junior Fellow in the
Harvard Society of Fellows. A native of San
Diego, he received his PhD in mathematics
from the University of California, Berkeley,
in 2005. He received his master’s degree in
mathematics from San Francisco State in
2002, and his bachelor’s degree in mathe-matics
from the University of California,
Berkeley, in 2000.
The Packard Fellowships for Science and
Engineering were established in 1988 by the
David and Lucile Packard Foundation to allow
the nation’s most promising professors to pur-sue
science and engineering research early in
their careers with few funding restrictions and
limited paperwork requirements. Every year,
the foundation invites the presidents of 50 uni-versities
to nominate two professors each from
their institutions.
For more on the Packard Foundation, please
visit www.packard.org.
PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
Seth Sullivant
Sullivant earns Packard Fellowship
Aiyyer earns CAREER Award,
keeps PAMS’ streak alive
Anantha Aiyyer, assistant professor of
marine, earth and atmospheric sciences, has
received an Early Career Development Award,
more commonly known as a CAREER Award,
from the National Science Foundation.Aiyyer
received the $556,000 award for his project,
titled “Dynamics of African Easterly Waves:
Integrating Phenomenological Studies and
Mathematical Instruction in Atmospheric
Science,”which seeks to better understand and
teach about the origin and tracking of atmos-pheric
waves that are a key ingredient in
Atlantic tropical storms.
This honor is the latest in a string of
national and international awards received
by PAMS junior faculty members. Aiyyer is
the 7th PAMS faculty member to win a
CAREER Award in the last three years and
the 14th since 2004. Other recent honors
include the Beckman Young Investigator
Award, Sloan Research Fellowship and
Packard Fellowship (see above).
Aiyyer joined the PAMS faculty in 2006
after serving as a postdoctoral researcher at
the State University of New York at Albany,
where he also earned his master’s and PhD
in atmospheric science.He also holds bach-elor’s
and master’s degrees in physics from
the Indian Institute of Technology in
Kharagpur, India.
20 SPRING 2010 | scope
What’s new with you?
Alumni and friends of the College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences are encouraged to share your latest
success stories, update your contact information, or submit any questions or comments directly to
pams_info@ncsu.edu.
PHOTO BY STEVE TOWNSEND
Anantha Aiyyer
scope | SPRING 2010 21
Stephen Ashley, Jr. (BA ’93 Chemistry) was
selected for the third consecutive year to
Business North Carolina magazine’s “Legal
Elite” in the field of intellectual property.
Ashley is a registered patent attorney and
owner of Ashley Law Firm P.C. in Charlotte,
specializing in patent, trademark and copy-right
law.
Tom Banks and Tim Kelley (Mathematics)
were named fellows of the Society for
Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM).
Banks was selected “for contributions to con-trol
and inverse problems for partial differ-ential
equations.” Kelley was selected “for
contributions to nonlinear equations, opti-mization,
and flow in porous media.”
John Blondin, Ruth Chabay and Gail
McLaughlin (Physics) have all within the last
year been named fellows of the American
Physical Society (APS) for their various con-tributions
in physics research and education.
APS is the world’s second-largest organiza-tion
of physicists, and is committed to advanc-ing
and diffusing the knowledge of physics.
Marie Davidian (Statistics) received the
George W. Snedecor Award from the
Committee of Presidents of Statistical
Societies. Davidian received the award at
the 2009 Joint Statistical Meeting for “fun-damental
contributions to the theory and
methodology of longitudinal data, especially
nonlinear mixed effects models; for signif-icant
contributions to the analysis of clini-cal
trials and observational studies; and for
leadership as president of ENAR (Eastern
North American Region/International
Biometric Society), as editor and as a mem-ber
of the International Biometric Society
council.”
Erich Kaltofen (Mathematics) was named
a fellow of the Association for Computing
Machinery (ACM), the world’s largest educa-tional
and scientific computing society.
Kaltofen was selected “for contributions to
symbolic and algebraic computation, alge-braic
algorithms and complexity theory.”
Bruce Mattingly (PhD ’88 Applied Mathe-matics)
was named dean of the School of Arts
and Sciences at the State University of New
York at Cortland.
Gary Mitchell (Physics) was the 2010 recip-ient
of the American Physical Society’s
Division of Nuclear Physics Mentoring Award.
The award is given to division members who
have had an exceptional impact as mentors
of nuclear scientists and students. Mitchell
has mentored 55 graduate students over the
course of his career.
David Muddiman (Chemistry) has received
the 2010 Biemann Medal sponsored by the
American Society for Mass Spectrometry
(ASMS). The award recognizes significant
achievements in basic or applied mass spec-trometry
made by an individual early in his or
her career.
Daniel Solomon (Dean) was a recipient of
the 2010 Equity Award for Women. This award,
presented by the NC State University Council
on the Status of Women, is awarded in recog-nition
of service toward the goal of women’s
equity.
Leonard Stefanski (Statistics) has been
named Drexel Professor of Statistics at NC
State. Stefanski is known internationally for
his work in measurement error models. The
Drexel Professorship was created in 1968 by
a corporate gift from Drexel Enterprises,
which is now part of the company known as
Drexel Heritage Furniture, headquartered in
Thomasville, NC.
COURTESY OF STEPHEN ASHLEY, JR.
PHOTO BY MARC HALL
Stephen Ashley, Jr.
Notables
Marie Davidian
COURTESY OF SUNY-CORTLAND
PHOTO BY ROGER WINSTEAD
Bruce Mattingly David Muddiman
22 SPRING 2010 | scope
Working closely with their own attorneys
and the NC State University Office of Planned
Giving, the Simpsons have established a life
estate gift that deeds their home and property
in Carteret County to the PAMS Foundation.
A life estate gift allows a donor to give his or
her personal residence to a charitable institu-tion
while retaining lifetime use.
Upon transfer to PAMS,ultimately the prop-erty—
roughly 2.5 acres with about 200 feet of
frontage on Peletier Creek—will become the
Bob Simpson Visiting Scholars and Research
Residence. It will be used to provide short-term
housing and dockage facilities that will enhance
multidisciplinary studies among research sci-entists,
educators, extension specialists and stu-dents
concerned with marine sciences and
coastal natural resources.
The long road from Dakota
to Carolina
The gift is the culmination of a 60-year love
affair between Bob Simpson, 84, and the North
Carolina coast that began when he first arrived
Bob Simpson first came to North Carolina in 1949. In the six
decades since, he has been a tireless advocate for the state’s coastal
regions and the outdoors in general. Through a recent gift he and
his wife, Conni, have made to the College of Physical and
Mathematical Sciences, Simpson has guaranteed that this legacy
will live on for generations to come.
Life estate
gift will
provide a
home base
for coastal
science
researchers
in Carteret County as a young World War II
veteran after serving three years as a naviga-tor
in the Marine Corps. A native of Havana,
North Dakota, he returned to the Great Plains
briefly after the war before a lead on a job with
the Carteret News Times brought him to North
Carolina.
“The editor said, ‘Pay your own way, and
we’ll give you a six-week trial,’”Simpson recalls.
“So I loaded up my wife and all of my posses-sions
into an old Model A Ford and hit the
road for Morehead City.”
When they arrived, Simpson and his young
wife, Mary, who died in 2005, needed an
affordable place to stay. They found that buy-ing
a used boat was going to be cheaper than
renting a room, so they bought the 45-foot
cruiser, Silver Spray. It would be the Simpsons’
home for the next 17 years, splitting time
between North Carolina and Florida.
Simpson returned to military service dur-ing
the Korean War. Upon his return to the
States, he began working as a freelance writer
for various boating and outdoor publications.
Around the same time, he began to write a reg-ular
column for the News & Observer, where
his nature pieces continue to run each Sunday
on the editorial page.He also began working
in his spare time on a variety of other projects
to promote the region.
Today, those projects read like a laundry list
of what makes coastal North Carolina such a
wonderful place to visit and live.
Simpson and a small group of friends started
the Fabulous Fishermen contest as a way to
promote marlin fishing off of Morehead
City. Today, the contest is known as the Big
Rock Blue Marlin Fishing Tournament, one
of the largest and most prestigious events of
its kind in the country.
He was a driving force behind the estab-lishment
of a mariners’ museum in
Beaufort, known today as the North
Carolina Maritime Museum.
He was instrumental in creating the Skippers
Roster in downtown Morehead City,which
memorializes many of the captains who
contributed to North Carolina’s reputation
as a world-wide sports fishing center.
He was also a leader in the fight to prevent
a highway from running through Cape
Lookout National Seashore. Much to
Simpson’s credit, the shore looks much the
same as it did when he began his fight.
A place to ��turn the lights on”
The logic behind the recent gift Bob and
Conni Simpson, who were married on
Valentine’s Day 2009, have made to PAMS is
in much the same vein as Bob’s fight to pro-tect
Cape Lookout.When asked why he chose
to give the property away when developers
were offering upwards of $2 million for it,
Simpson’s answer is as feisty as it is heartfelt.
“I’m giving it away because I’m ornery,” he
says. “I’ve seen too much natural beauty
destroyed around here in my life, and I didn’t
want to see this property turned into more
condos or apartments.”
Instead, Simpson decided that his personal
oasis will be used as a place to house and,
hopefully, inspire those who may help us bet-ter
understand how to balance natural beauty
and economic success in coastal areas.
“I’m hoping this is a place that will help
turn the lights on for students,” he says. “It
will be a place where they can be totally
immersed in the culture and the environ-ment
and see if studying, understanding and
protecting them is really something they
want to devote their life to.”
Much like Bob Simpson has devoted his life
to the same cause.
scope | SPRING 2010 23
PHOTOS BY STEVE TOWNSEND
The view up Peletier Creek from the Simpsons’ property.
Bob and Conni Simpson
at their home in Carteret County.
How to
make a gift
You may remember how difficult it was
to manage the expense of higher educa-tion.
You may want to help today’s stu-dents
achieve their dreams.
The PAMS Foundation provides many
ways to support students, faculty and pro-grams
of the College. Whether you want
to contribute to an existing scholarship,
support a departmental enhancement
fund, make a memorial gift or consider
support in other areas, our staff is avail-able
to help you explore the options.
To support existing funds
To contribute to a scholarship, fellow-ship
or other fund, fill out our secure,
online gift form at https://www3.acs.
ncsu.edu/ pams/ or mail a check to the
PAMS Foundation, Campus Box 8201,
Raleigh, NC, 27695. Make checks payable
to PAMS Foundation and write the name
of the fund on the “notes” or “for” line.
If your employer provides matches for
charitable donations, please send a
completed matching gift form with your
contribution.
There are many funds not mentioned
in this issue of Scope. For a full list of
funds, visit www.pams.ncsu.edu/devel-opment/
funds.php or contact our office.
To explore other options
If you have questions about gift plan-ning,
we can help you identify tax benefits,
choose between permanent endowment
versus one-time support, and explore
estate planning or life-income options.
There are many ways to match your
interests with specific College needs, and
several possibilities for making your
vision a reality. Whether using cash,
appreciated stock, real estate or a
bequest, we can help you find the best
way to make the most of your gift.
Contact us at 919-515-3462 or by
e-mail at pams_dev@ncsu.edu.
24 SPRING 2010 | scope
PAMS launches Dean’s Circle
to recognize leading donors
The College of Physical and Mathematical
Sciences last fall announced the creation of
the PAMS Dean’s Circle, a new donor recog-nition
society to honor alumni and friends
who provide unrestricted annual gifts to the
PAMS Fund for Excellence.
The Fund for Excellence provides urgently
needed resources for important priorities
such as scholarships and fellowships, student
programs, research support and student and
faculty recruitment activities.
“While endowed gifts help secure the
College’s long-term financial strength, these
types of unrestricted, recurring gifts pro-vide
our leadership team with greater flex-ibility
to respond to more immediate
opportunities and challenges,” says Anita
Stallings, PAMS executive director of col-lege
advancement.
Dean’s Circle members will include all
donors who make an annual gift of $1,000 or
more—$500 or more from new alumni who
have graduated within the last five years.
Dean’s Circle members who give at the $1,000
level or higher also earn membership in the
university’s leadership giving society, the
Chancellor’s Circle. All Dean’s Circle mem-bers
will receive recognition in Scope maga-zine,
on the PAMS Web site and at various
College events throughout the year.
Additional giving levels within the Dean’s
Circle can be reached with minimum gifts of
$2,500, $5,000 and $10,000.
“We really need and appreciate these kinds
of gifts,” says Marla Gregg, PAMS director of
donor and alumni relations, who spearheaded
the effort. “Our goal was to come up with a
way to thank our donors for their generosity
and to encourage others to give.”
For more information on the PAMS Dean’s
Circle, please visit www.pams.ncsu.edu/
development/recognition.php or contact
Marla Gregg at pamsalumni@ncsu.edu or
919-515-3462.
WE’RE TAKING
INNOVATION
TO NEW DEPTHS
Itmay sound like a cliché, but it’s true—theworld is our classroom. In fact, in the
College of Physical andMathematical Sciences, our classroom stretches fromthe
middle of the oceanto the inner reaches of thedesert. Frominside thehumanbody
to the outer edges of our galaxy. But learning also takes place in actual brick-and-mortar
classrooms—some of themost advancedscience teachingenvironments in
the world, designed by our own professors to create active, collaborative learning.
Wherever PAMS faculty and students go, they are at the forefront of discovery. A
journey that starts with curiosity-driven, pure science and continues with applied
research that addresses some of society’s greatest challenges.
Learn more at www.pams.ncsu.edu
College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences
North Carolina State University
Campus Box 8201
Raleigh, North Carolina 27695–8201
NC STATE UNIVERSITY Nonprofit Org
US Postage
PAID
Raleigh, NC
Permit #2353
Through careful coordination with your financial planner and the PAMS Foundation,
it is possible for you to increase income or reduce taxes—including income, capital
gains, gift, and estate taxes—while making a greater investment in the future of
PAMS than you ever thought possible.
Deferred, or planned, gifts come in many shapes and sizes. Contact us today for more
information on achieving financial security for you and PAMS through:
beneficiary designations for wills, trusts and retirement plans
charitable gift annuities
charitable remainder trusts
charitable lead trusts
remainder interest in a residence or farm
life insurance
How can you secure a legacy for
yourself and the College of Physical and
Mathematical Sciences all at the same
time? By ensuring that your financial,
retirement and estate plans are in
order, and considering a deferred gift
to the PAMS Foundation in the process.
E n s u r e t w o L E G A C I E S
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